Age Of Ambition

Age Of Ambition explains how China has gone from impoverished and only developing to a world superpower and economic powerhouse in only the last 30 years.

Let’s go back to the 1950s. China is still pretty poor. The per capita income was only ⅓ of sub-Saharan African countries even up until about 1979. Part of the problem was the well-meaning Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward order, which made private farming illegal.

This was an attempt to bring China to a new level of industrialism and economic status, and at first, production grew. But it quickly began to slide backward when famine and recession killed 30-45 million people. This was greater than all of the casualties, military and civilian, in World War I!

Hope for the Chinese people still lay with the potential of the farmers whose determination to survive led to real progress. The growth started with 18 poverty-stricken farmers in Xiaogang village banded together to share land evenly, cultivate it, and protect one another.

The government still took a large portion of these peasant’s harvests. But they did sell what was leftover to earn some profit. A year later, their earnings were 20 times greater! Other farmers caught on and quickly markets began thriving.

The government eventually found out what was going on, but didn’t stop it because of the positive effect it was having on the economy. Over time these patterns made their way to 800 million other producers, which made for a huge advancement in China’s GDP.

Never underestimate the power of the little things compounded many times over to make a big difference for the better!

Ambition began to shine in China once individuals were allowed to start their own businesses. They have an idea called the “barehanded” fortune which is similar to the American dream. Stories of people working hard to get rich quickly became popular in newspapers and other media. We all love those rags to riches stories, and the Chinese are no different! Take the story of Gong Haiyan for example. She was raised in a tiny remote village by parents who couldn’t even read. But that didn’t stop her from climbing the ladder. Haiyan got a great education and eventually began a free online dating site that became the biggest in China. Her hard work made her $80 million by 2011. Others don’t receive as good of an education but still rise to success. One street food vendor’s hard work helped them eventually become a wealthy Chinese fast-food business owner, for example. Whatever their background, the people of this country strive for the best schooling they can get. An increasing number of newly wealthy Chinese come from just humble peasant families. And…