Family Guide
Thursday, 09 July 2009 08:07
Written by Daisy Wakefield

---

Liu and Song go driving with their daughter on the weekends, sometimes to visit grandparents, sometimes on excursions just beyond the city. Their car is a Volkswagen Passat, which they both learned to drive when they bought it two years ago. Their home is an upgrade from their tiny newlywed digs which they were able to sell at a good price, since they had bought it before the real estate market skyrocketed.

Liu is Shanghai born and raised. He has seen the evolution of this city from his youth, and with it, an evolution in himself. He quit his job of eight years as a journalist to start his own market research company. Leaving a stable career to become an entrepreneur would have been unthinkable in his parent’s day. But Liu sees the opportunities and wants to tap them, taking risks while he’s still young. So far the hours have been long, and the payoff minimal.

Family Guide
Thursday, 09 July 2009 08:07
Written by Daisy Wakefield

---

Shen and Gu couldn’t have imagined how their lives would develop. Born shortly after the Great Leap Forward, and children during the Cultural Revolution, the basic texture of their early lives was meager simplicity. They never went hungry, but neither did they have an abundance of anything.

In 1978, just as they were graduating from high school, the national university entrance exams were reinstated. They each placed into Shanghai schools – he into Jiaotong, and she into a medical technician’s college. They started their married life together in a 30-square-meter apartment that his parents gave to them.

Family Guide
Thursday, 09 July 2009 08:07
Written by Daisy Wakefield

---

Chen and Li dated through their undergrad and grad studies at Fudan University. In 1994, after both being accepted into PhD science programs at Syracuse University, they married and left immediately for New York.

After a semester, Li changed to a Master’s program in computer science. She finished in two years, and started work, while Chen continued his studies. When his PhD was completed, they moved to the Boston area. They both worked in the exploding software and firmware fields, and he had stock options in his new company that went from USD 75 a share to USD 175 in a matter of a few months. They dreamt of early retirement, only to watch the Silicon Valley bubble burst, and the stock plummet to USD 30 a share. It is now worth USD 2 a share.

Family Guide
Thursday, 09 July 2009 08:07
Written by Daisy Wakefield

---

Wu and Chang seemed to be the embodiment of the emerging Chinese middle class. He was a research assistant in a local institute, and planning on getting further education to eventually rise to the level of research supervisor, and she was a human resources manager for a multinational company. They owned their apartment, which had been paid off two years after they bought it. They had an 18-month-old son, who was being cared for by his grandmother while his parents worked.

Then Chang found out that she was pregnant. The turmoil they felt was immense: they were devout Christians who believed that this life was a gift, and yet they were well aware of the havoc that would be wreaked by having a second child. Especially considering Chang’s relatively high salary, the potential fee – three times their combined income in the year before pregnancy – would be astounding.

Family Guide
Thursday, 09 July 2009 08:07
Written by Keiko Nakamura & Lynnette Senzel

---

The Japanese community in Shanghai is extensive, with a long history dating back as far as the 1920s, during the late colonial period when Japanese were the largest ex-pat group in Shanghai.  Even today the Japanese presence in Shanghai remains strong and families rely on various well-developed resources for education, entertainment, dining and shopping.

The largest population of Japanese ex-pats living in Shanghai is concentrated in Gubei, Hongqiao and Pudong. These enclaves have even sprouted entire apartment compounds. An example is Toho Kaen in Pudong.  Established and run by large Japanese corporations, Toho Kaen features apartments with tatami-mat flooring and on-site supermarkets showcasing Japanese groceries as well as fresh fish flown in from Japan. Similar compounds also exist in Hongqiao.