Life of Guangzhou - Love Devaluates in Guangzhou?

Ms.Zheng Chen, expert of love and marriage from the famous Guangzhou Jiating (Families) Magazine, launched a survey. The survey showed that more Guangzhou citizens denied belonging to the middle class. Of those interviewed, only some 30% said they had the sense of belonging to the middle class, which is much lower than 10 years ago when 42.4% felt they were middle class. By contrast more and more people think they are lower class and some even consider themselves in the minority.

The survey covered five first-tier cities of China including Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing. The statistics showed that in the first half of 2005, the total family income in Guangzhou ranked top among the five with 10,990.86 yuan. According to experts, widening wealth gaps have borne much influence to Guangzhou people's judgment of their social status.

"Guangzhou people have a more strict definition of 'Middle Class,'" Zheng said, "in their opinion, middle class should come from countries and districts that are more developed than Guangzhou." Another thing that should be indicated is that women are more likely to agree with their partners as to what social class they perceive themselves.

Another surrey of "Analysis of Changes in Guangzhou People's Views of Family and Love (1999-2007)" showed, Love as a lesser priority coming in 11th. Love now comes after Money and Career while in the early 1990's, love still held No.4 or No. 5 in Guangzhou people's hearts.

The survey has covered 1000 citizens from 6 districts. For most males, Career has a more privileged position than Love putting the two at opposite sides of the spectrum. As for Love and Money, in 1997 the two were equal to many males. Satirically after 1997, Money seemed more important then Love, and now in 2007, the two are fairly even. Before 2007, Love was more important then Career to females, while now women assign a priority to Career according the survey. As experts indicate, women are becoming more and more independent and paying more attention to enterprise.

(by Carrot Chan and Kimberly Barteau)