Via <a href="http://del.icio.us/iftf" title="Del.icio.us user: Institute for the Future">Virtual China's del.icio.us links</a>, "<a href="" title="Business Week Online">Expert Roundtable 6:  Chinese and Indian Youth</a>":

<quote>For the first time, it is O.K. in India for a kid to say that he or she wants to be a theater person, a singer, a fashion designer, a writer, a cricket player as a profession without parents losing sleep. It also means that they had multiple choices to pick up a role model. For the first time in India, business is not a bad word. It is O.K. to be a businessman. When I look at young people around me, I see more hope than helplessness. More aspiration than angst. </quote>

When I look around Shanghai, I see the pendulum swinging too far in the other direction:  <em>everyone</em> is pushing kids to be businessmen, and the parents of kids who want to be singers, fashion desingers, writers or [soccer] players <em>cannot</em> sleep well at night.

Case in point:  Jodi told me that <em>everybody</em> who she tells about our upcoming marriage asks us if we have bought a house yet (financial security <span lang="la">uber alles</span>).  I thought people wouldn't apply this expectation to me because I'm from a different culture, but just yesterday my language partner at work asked me the exact same thing when my wedding plans came up.