Exclusive | Journey to prosperity: how a generation climbed China’s social ladder through 40 years of luck, talent and economic growth
- Beijing’s move towards a market-oriented economy helped open doors for people like Chen Chaogen, who grew up a poor villager but now lives a middle-class life
- Chen attributes the dramatic changes in his life to good fortune rather than his ability and hard work
Growing up in a remote mountain village in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, Chen Chaogen, 40, still remembers vividly how the family struggled to make ends meet.
The family had little more than cabbage for meals and Chen had to wear patched trousers to school as a child because they could not afford new ones.
Now a senior executive in a tea trading company in Chengdu, Chen lives a typical middle-class life – big flat, two children, luxury car and regular family holidays. Material shortage is the last thing he thinks about.
Looking back, Chen attributes the dramatic improvement in his life to the good luck of living in a growing economy rather than doing well in exams or making the right career choices.
“I have always worked hard at school and work and gradually made my way up, but I think that contributed very little to personal success,” he said. “Living in a time of change and strongly growing economy counted much more.”
Chen is one member of a crowd that has climbed the social ladder thanks to the reform and opening-up policy adopted in 1978, which steered China to a market-oriented economy. Along the way, as China embraced a role in the global production chain, unprecedented opportunities were created for social mobility through better education, fewer restraints on the flow of talent and more job opportunities.