Do The Chinese Not Want To Have Babies Anymore? | Street Interview 

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"Young people should have kids" and "young people should work 12hr days and be thankful they get to keep their jobs and live in a one bedroom apartment" do not mix

This low birthday rate is global. The youth don't wanna bring kids they can't fully take care of into this world. I think that's wise and responsible.

Honestly even I don't wanna have kids in this day and age. Economy is terrible, society is terrible, job opportunities are terrible. What I make is enough to keep myself alive and to help my family out. Kids at this point is a luxury. Edit: I can see that my comment has sparked a debate. For context, I'm a single (in civil status at least, but I'm in a long-term relationship). I have a job that earns less than ideal despite my skills and promotions depend on who you know and which superior you can suck up to. Hence, my comment. I come from a large family and this was heartbreaking enough to admit, more so since I'm in a 7yr relationship and we're getting married in a few years. I'm also a Southeast Asian if it helps understand my point of view.

These are all very thoughtful, with high level of social awareness, and intelligent answers.

Sometimes I wonder if the falling fertility rate in most of the world is in some way our species subconsciously correcting for the population explosion in those same places in the 19th and 20th century. Obviously lower infant mortality + increased freedom for women + economic anxiety + lacking support for parents is the real reason, but it’s interesting that the end result is a soft population decline following immense growth. In nature, population explosions are usually followed by collapse and mass starvation as resources are used up. In that context, it would actually be really beneficial (not to mention more humane) if our species instinctively slows down reproduction after a period of growth. Better to have fewer kids than to have everyone die horribly.

Their insights are profound and well constructed. Asian Boss as a team are fairly consistent with these thought-provoking street interviews. Their topics are always interesting to listen to and even talk about.

To make it simple: 1. Too much economic stress. 2. Too many jeopardies to career, especially to female. 3. Too little time to accompany kid(s). 4. Too hard to take care babies before kindergarten. No socialised babycare service at all.

If you’re happy with not having a baby, just go for it. If you love kids and you’re a responsible human being, go for it! It’s a preference, don’t get pressured by the society to follow the norms. Just do what you want!

My friends and I have talked about this and a few reasons that were said were that it is too expensive/can't afford, bad health that makes them feel like they wouldn't be good moms and/or fear the child would inherit the health issue, climage change is a big one too worrying what kind of suffering their child would have to endure, and the constant underpaid teachers that drop off working as teachers because of the high stress and low salary. One didn't want kids because she became phobic by the alien movies. Cost though is number 1. Being able to afford the hospital bill, food, clothes, formula, etc.

My chinese friends, either they choose cohabitation or childless marriage. They have good income, just dont want to deal with having children. They said, it too much because their parents live with them as well.

2:58 it’s double-salary 「雙薪家庭」family not two-parent family

I am a college graduated person in US. I have one kid and also working full time. I waited to have to make sure I am financially stable. Having kid is the most mentally and tiring thing I experience. It is 10x more work than a job. Once you have a kid, u fully responsible for it schooling, full time care taker (shower, vomit when he sick, sick in middle of nights, teeth care, etc), nutritionist to make sure he eat well or slave when it is a picky eater, etc… I often think death is a relief. It tough being parents in this modern world. US does not live in community as other country to provide baby support within family members. Resentment is the truth most parents hide their true feeling to others.

that's fantastic how you've combined perspectives on the same topic from three different countries - brilliant concept, it allows us to discern more nuances and shades of the asian reality 😊👍 congrats Asian Bosses, I'm looking forward to more of similarly combined materials

This is sad in reality. Everything is so based around a hard work ethic. There has to be a balance between work and free time and family time. You can be the number one producer for your company working all the overtime, but how will you have time to create and sustain a stable family at home?

I have watched quite a few Asian boss videos and I feel the China correspondent have done a good job in crafting the questions and choosing the interviewees to be edited into the video, which give the viewers a more rounded views of the issue. Also props to the interviewees for being so articulated to give their views on the questions asked.

Childcare costs are very high, especially in top-tier cities. The cost of education and extracurricular activities is also very high in big cities compared to outside of China. My family moved to Guangzhou a while ago, but we also go back home to Spain once in a while. We have discovered a school year in China at an international school (we are foreigners and can’t go to a local school, to my knowledge) costs much more than an equivalent or top-tier school in Spain. Maybe because Chinese families have fewer children so all these services catered to families and kids can ask for higher prices.

It’s worth noting that the culture in China has heavy filial piety. There is pressure especially for women to find a partner, bear children, raise those children, be a homemaker, a good housewife to their husbands, take care of their own parents and at times their partner’s parents, and at times even grandparents. All while having their own dreams and careers they pursue in their lives. It’s difficult, and I’m sure many women can relate on a global scale.

Really great interview! Damn! The fact that the average citizen that you stop on the street is this informed is really encouraging 😊 I'm 32 myself, living in Sweden, and I wouldn't want children myself. It's so interesting, and reassuring, to see that fellow millennials, living on the other side of the world, have the same thoughts, issues and challenges as me. Life is crazy, but kinda cool at the same time 😊

8:15 admire the response of this mother; she considered that she has to be fair to both her children, she did not want to make that sacrifice to her career and made a responsible decision to not have a second child because she knows she couldn’t commit fully to raising him/her. in contrast to say parents who just want more kids for the sake of having them without considering if they could provide a similar quality of life to all their children, or try to give the same amount of attention and effort to raising them… and some children end up receiving less love and attention growing up :(

The falling birth rate goes hand in hand with the falling marriage rate, which has hit a all-time low this year, falling something like 20% from last year. Being a regular consumer of Chinese social media myself, I think the proportion of truly DINK (married w no kids) couples is low compared to people just NOT in relationships. Several of the interviewees said that people have no kids cuz they don't have a partner. Many factors contribute to people remaining single--higher education raises the bar for a potential mate, negative experiences with bad partners, and most importantly, the realization that life as a single person can be just as fulfilling. So many young Chinese people view relationships and by extension, marriage and kids, as a burden. Especially in big cities like Shanghai, they struggle to provide for themselves, so they can't imagine having to support a family.

At least they can articulate a logical and individual explanation about the birth rate issue. Which says a lot about the misconception surrounding China and freedom of thought we have in the west. Many European countries have the same problem, but it's like some kind of self censorship has been applied to the subject of birth rate. I think it's the first time (at least where I live) political parties have started talking about policies to help young couples making kids like there's no tomorrow. One thing we have in common is the fact that having a job and being married is something our "bosses" don't seem to like.

Great video with very candid people who mostly elaborate on the economic difficulties of raising children in China, and, the resulting low birthrate.

Interesting that a few of the interviewees blatantly admit that they have discriminatory HR practices. My partner who is Chinese admits that in his work, they will not hire someone who is likely to have kids soon. I always tell him off for that, it's so unfair. We're trying to have a baby and how would he feel if I hadn't been able to get my job a few years ago because of my age/stage in life. Sucks.

I'm not surprised to hear some of the reasons; generally being similar to Japan. It's more of a situational thing. So unless governments can do things effective immediately like working out the rising costs of living (housing, food, utilities) and making it more favorable for couples to have children, we're going to keep seeing the trend of declining population. More often than not, the issue these days is that people are weighing the pros & cons of working or taking the time & money for a relationship, and then with marrying, and then again later having children or not. Given the current state of the global economy (in general) more people would prefer financial stability over dating/marrying/having children. If someone cannot support themselves at all/well enough, how can one expect to be able to support a family? Sure both can work while being married (which many do) but even then it might be barely enough to get by unless family helps financially or with the kids. Sometimes, some couples don't have that luxury of help so that's something else to many people consider. The whole marriage and traditional social expectations related to it is not as viable these days for many people. It's just a situation of the times. If people get married later in life, they're not as likely to have children at all; let alone even 1 child. So I think even having 1 child should be sought after as a goal for those that do date and marry. People shouldn't expect/assume things though. It's best not to force people about things like marriage & children; especially not bringing up that so so married and has x amount of children. That will just discourage people from even dating; let alone marrying. Also, even though China, Japan, etc has a declining population, the global population as of now is overpopulated. We don't have enough resources to support the global population in the long term. So in a sense, this declining population might be seen as disastrous for a country. But as a whole it's actually beneficial in a sense.

Please make indonesian people interview. I'm sick of my people always glorifying married in young age without financial consideration for the future

Comme toujours, très intéressant. Merci pour ce reportage. 👍😉

If it's your calling to have a family then go for it. You'll find ways to adjust how you live and it all be worth it when you come home everyday with a family. This requires a lot of thinking though. So it would be good to spend time alone and feel what is it you really want in your life.

I love the practical and understanding perspectives here. Especially from the lady who described herself as more "traditional". Improve the quality of life for those already living it. The faster children can become successful adults, the sooner they can settle and consider children. The mindset has already shifted.

I do agree we should be consider since the environment itself has changed, and raising a child need a lot of responsibility and money. Asian parents tend to burden their child with the custom ("since we already spent a lot of money for you, you have to take care of us") and I don't want to be that type of parents.

This channel is always my favourite. They provide so much awareness about global topics.

Great work by the Asian Boss Team! Is it possible tho to hear the opinions of Chinese people from other cities as well? Like Guangzhou, Shenzhen and so on...

Appreciate the video, but I'd like to see Asian Boss do China content outside of Shanghai. Why haven't you done any interviews recently in Shenzhen or Guangzhou?

Such thoughtful answers. It seems like urban China is encountering the same kinds of pressures and challenges to families as in the West.

The current people who recently married came from one child if they have two children the couple has to take care of 4 parents and 2 children that's a heavy burden for the couple.

Agree with the mother expecting her second child. Others also give very interesting thoughts. This is in Shanghai, one of the lowest birth rate in China. It shows people are fully aware and think through this societal issue. So good to know that population crisis will not happen in China.

The translation in 2:56 may be wrong? I think the woman is saying "dual-earner family".

One issue is probably that people expect more from romantic relationships where it might not have been as much of a personal choice in the past. And you had more family support in the past too. A lot of people just weren't raised to know how to flirt well. And if they aren't confident enough to learn themselves (like their parents or grandparents maybe didn't need to be) then where in the past they might have had kids, today they won't.

Hello AsianBoss thanks for making all these videos! very insightful. Is there anyway you could make the subtitles not hardcoded so that we are able to turn them on and off if we like. Thanks

Not sure if anyone mentioned it, but the biggest factor is educational/workplace opportunities, especially for women. Simply put, this gives alternatives to being a homemaker that are oftentimes viewed as superior. Raising children requires significant time investment and money even if your work does have accommodations in place. If you have kids your independence and ability to follow certain dreams you might have is simply limited even in the most resourceful and supportive society. Many people pointed out the economic situation, but this does little to explain the long term trend. It can certainly be used to understand the fall in births during covid, but the drop in birth rate preceded that and has been going on during prosperous times too. Simply comparing poorer and richer countries or poorer and richer people within a country makes this even clearer. The less means you have to raise children the more often you do raise children. As contradictory as this might seem, it’s a trend that applies almost everywhere on earth.

I'm always impressed at how intelligent and well spoken Chinese people are!!

This year one of the most popular catchphrase in China is "we are the last generation".

Very interesting video with unique perspectives.

I think it’s a world problem,not just in China and East Asian.

Asian Boss, thank you for the topic. This is an interesting one.🌟。 Regarding topic, It depends on their income as well as their perspectives on their environments. Parents hope their kids have babies, but everyone has different plans for their future. Divorce rate is also higher in recent years, another reason people may not want to have babies, because they want their kids to grow up in good environment. 是不是想要小孩跟收入及環境有很大關係。很多人的父母很想抱孫子，但每個人在生涯規劃都不同。還有，離婚近幾年越來越多，這也導致大家不想生，因為還是希望小孩再健全的家庭下長大啊！ 台灣這邊很多人都沒生，房價太高了。

I don't think I can feed another person. Plus, I know myself, I'm not a caring person. can't imagine myself being with anyone, or even taking care of someone else.

Fantastic interview ✨️✨️✨️💫☀️💫✨️✨️✨️

2-3 child policy... You'd need some major rewards for having kids. In general, it's just easier to stop people from taking action (with punishments) than it is to make people do things that will take a ton of effort (like raising children)

The COVID-19 just make our economy worse, i am college student gonna graduate next year, i rellay worried about whether I can get a job For me, i just want a house, with my girlfriend, and have some fun with my friends on weekends, and that's it. But now I found it's hard to realize in the future.

If only kids were like amazon packages: after a certain period of time you can return if you can‘t live with it anymore but nooo. Children is a massive commitment. Time, money, all that. It costs WAY too much nowadays.

Is it perhaps a unique time when younger people can make decisions for themselves? W hen you start to make decisions, it is difficult, like using a muscle. You need practice to make a choice, and defend it. This could be a big cultural change. I don’t really know enough, but it’s what I think.

It has got to expensive for young people to have families in the developed world. I've been building my wealth in my 20s and I'm hoping to be able to start a family with a younger woman in my 30s or 40s, some older guys I know do have younger wives and started a family later. My grandfather's generation could raise a family of 6 on something as simple as a Cigarette Factory job in a man's 20s the wife didn't need to work to boot. Ideally a generation pair bonds with their generation, but desperate times like these starting a family can't be realistically obtained for many of us till we make it in our careers especially if we don't come from wealth. Sure younger men could start families now but it would put many of them into poverty.

Did anyone mentioned the population size disparity between the genders due to their one child policy and the traditional preference of having sons over daughters? One guy mentioned women's expectations are higher... But work environment does not gives women the assurance to leave her job for a few years to raise her child (HR discriminate the ppl over 35 is often mentioned by Chinese netizens.) like what one of the woman described. Ppl who thinks it is a huge problem when a female colleague is pregnant and moan and groan about the workload and the HR who asks female job seekers if they plan to marry or have kids in the next x amount of years, these are all signals that pregnancies are not welcomed and would affect your job seeking chances. Even if she takes that risks and leave a good job job for 2-4 years, are their mates' single salary sufficient? So why would women willingly marry down and still have to bear most of the childbearing and child rearing burden? Another is these ppl went thru the education system and job seeking environment, their children are under tremendous pressure to get into good high schools and universities, and their yearly amount of graduates are huge and job market competition is stiff, employers can have their pick, and can keep entry level salary low. These are not attractive prospects.

Can you add chinese subtitles as well? This would be excellent study material

There needs to be some way for people to both have comfortable and free lives... And have kids. The idea of Daycare needs to be expanded much farther (with possible state support)

Working hours is also one of the main reason. Getting a maternity leave is hard. So people don't want to take trouble to avoid being fired.

Population doesn’t matter. It’s the Quality of ppl 👍🏽👍🏽✅

when work-life balance and living cost are imbalance this what happens. low fertility is major concern bcs it can mean economic collapse in the future.

Thank you for your videos.

Asian Boss : Do you have any children ? Me : none that I know of ? 🤣

I truly believe that having children is a choice. I'd rather people don't have kids than have them and neglect them. Logicaly if you can't afford to raise a child you should think twice before bringing one into the world. That being said I believe that children are a gift from God, not the " burden " that some might believe they are. I have no doubt some will regret thier decision in later years, careers and success ( materialism ) isn't everything.

I don't want india to see in first place as a native. It's really embarrassing

You conducted the interview in a single place of a particular city. How authentic can it be?

Very interesting and well done video. Thank you!

This isn't a problem with China, its a problem with all the Asian countries. As Chinese Canadian, I can speak to two main reasons for this: 1. Raising a child is too expensive. Due to the size of the Asian country and high average population, the competition interms of school is exponentially harder than it is here in the west. Like literally I went to a top 30 university in the world. And I tried the grade 12 exam, and I would say I could barely get 600 point. You need over 650 to get to a top school in China. This means parent would need to not only invest way more money on tutor lessons, but also gave up valuable work time to bring their kids to these lessons. On top of that even if a Child graduates from a top university in China, the competition in the job market is just as intense. 2. Traditional ideology around marriage. I am not sure if this only occurs in other Asian countries, but I can speak for China. In China female who gave birth must stay in the bed for 30 days to recover from childbirth. It is believed that if they do any intense exercise it would severely harm the body, that is why a baby nanni is usually hired dirty the first 30 days when the child is born, in families that are better off, the nanni is hired for 60-90 days. This is so engraved in Chinese society that if a husband makes the wife do any work, like literally any work, the wife will consider that you don't care about her body, the wife will literally divorce the husband if she feels like she was not well taken care of during the 30 days. Its all over the news in China, where the wife feels like she wasn't taken care of during the first 30 days of child birth, and she ran back to her own parents house and divorced the husband ASAP. These ideologies paired with the fact that most Chinese companies does not allow for maternity of paternity leave, usually means that the wife must quit her job in order to have kids.

I think it says a lot about a society's underlying "Collective systematic mental health" (what I like to call it, at least) when a country's birth rate starts to decline. There is something wrong with the soul of the nation and it's people and something deep down must fundamentally shift and change in a drastic way to break free of this "culture" and "aura" of declining birth rate.

I really like the perspective of the woman with blue sunglasses on her head. Her points are exactly how I think

May i know where do you usually do the street interview in Shanghai?

isn't house free in ancient world?? why it cost 30 year of labory nowadays??? slavery??

I'm from the U.S. and i don't want to have kids because I think it's unethical. We've all been essentially forced on this earth through no decision of our own and we're forced into circumstances that we never chose to be born into. We don't even get to choose something as trivial as the way we look. In my opinion these are all things that i've struggled and continue to struggle with. In addition to this, i just don't want to force another human being to live on this planet under these corrupt systems. Furthermore, human beings can't even get over something as trivial and insignificant as skin color, I have no reason to believe that humans will be able to find solutions to bigger and much more significant issues. Even the fact that we age until our bodies are completely useless pisses me off. Perhaps if my way of thinking changes as I grow older I'll have children, but I honestly can't see that happening. I'm very resentful towards the world and humanity as a whole and frankly I hate existing in a world like this. I don't care about the narrative of "oh but look at all the progress we've made", some things should've never happened period. In short, I hate life, and if there's a God I despise him even more for creating everything the way it is.

im surprised, none of the chinese mentioned that the culture works too much. Cost of living and no work life balance is the major factors.

As a society progress, the mindset of the people would similarly change with higher education. The choice of pursuing own’s well-being rather than continuing the ‘family-tree’ is something that a more develop society is going to face. It’s happening all over the world & China is unlikely to be any different.

I never had kids because I just didn't want the heavy workload. They make you exhausted.

More kids? In this economy?

The pursuit of quality is much higher than the pursuit of quantity. No matter how large the population is, what is the significance of 3 labors in developing countries being equal to 1 labor in developed countries?

One of the biggest issue for China is the one child policy that was implemented previously...resulting into 4 grandparents -> 2 parents --> 1 child situation.

A lot of great insights and well thought out answers. Except the guy saying that high quality women have higher expections than what the reality is. I'm sorry no dude. Women put up with a lot of bad behaviours in the past and they're just tolerating less of it as society progresses. It's not a bad thing at all. Just be more mindful of your actions towards your partner.

it's always the same everywhere. poor people want to have truckloads of kids, more well to do people want to have few/no kids coz of the cost of living, cost of education blah blah blah.

Wow, HR in China can just ask you if you’re married w kids as a criteria for employment 😮

I've had one kid so far (alhumdulilah) and it is very very tiring. Beautiful but tiring. I've been the least productive I've ever been but this is likely because i could be more organised

Good reporting. Intelligent people were chosen to be interviewed. ( From California, USA)

Menurut saya, punya anak di zaman sekarang tuh gak sama seperti di zaman dulu. Punya itu gak cuma soal nikah-making love-lahirin baby. Tapi gimana mendidik anak yang akan menemui tantangan yang lebih besar dari zaman sekarang. Biaya juga harus dipertimbangkan. Anak itu gak cuma butuh dikasih makan doang. Pendidikan, kesehatan, lingkungan pertemanan, pokoknya banyak hal. Jangan sampe anak itu kelak cuma jadi beban orang lain

if the stress of nurturing and growing them are reduced, almost everyone would want to have children. Whether the world can or cannot take it, that depends on the quality of the new humans. If I have one I would choose passing down love, education and survival skills because I know the competition will get worse and resources will be scarcer as the new gen boom because the old gen are hoarders, the next big thing would be inheritance, which will mostly flow into the government or corrupted NGOs' coffers because of poor wealth to children ratio. Anyway, I myself is struggling to build a safety net, my children if any would probably fall right through. f it i guess. One cannot protect them, or equip them with weapond, then the only way is to train them.

Because cost of living getting higher so more ppl choose to be single and don't want child

It is simple math 2 people married produce 1 child means negative 2 children mean netral 3 children mean positive. Now... which job can have earnings to support 5 people?

When people value career or money more than children, which is the norm in eastern Asian countries, a decline in birth rate is what you get. Because of Confucius teachings, people place too much emphasis on personal success or they think success is what defines a person. People will envy you for having a great career or lots of money, but not when you have lots of kids. Most people want what other people have, if people start valuing children more than career or put less emphasis on personal success, then the declining birth rate may reverse. Many people hold the views that they do not want to bring children to this terrible world, have they read history? They have no idea how much worse our ancestors had it, but still our ancestors had children and that ‘s why we exist today.

Driving down housing prices may well be key for having more children internationally. Pretty much all governments messed that up by letting housing become an investment vehicle. Also, where US chip sanctions make it hard, going heavier on automation so that there is more abundance, is probably the only way to make more people comfortable enough that they'll easily choose to have children.

I think you can do the same survey in other third-tier cities in China, and the results may be different, because the pressure in third-tier cities will be much less (and the wages will be lower), but their parents will help their children, so many families will have two children.

Good interview, and it shows that most Chinese does want children, it's just the property price(now it's finally decreasing) and competition in education that's making people to second guess So the government policies should target on making housing more affordable, and invest more in education resources. You see this is why Asian Boss is such a valuable channel, every other channels talking about Chinese demographics is all about doom and gloom, and the views of the Chinese people are always ignored. Asian Boss gives the world insights into countries they operate in.

As an Indian most modern generation indians also not wanting to have children or just stick to one! The amount of responsibility and the sacrifice woman have to put through to their health and jobs makes them not to have more than one else none also due to the horrible future these generations might see due to natural destructions also make people not wanna bring a life... This is gonna be the way henceforth henceforth .. won't be soon that it will decline here too.

I decided not to have kids because of money. Also I see my younger brother already struggling with 1. My parents already said they won't help much

We can all agree falling economics is a significant factor with the youth not wanting kids ( rightly so ), combined with the idea that you’re supposed to finish your education and overachieve which is difficult with a baby. I feel like the rich who can financially support a baby even though there’s economic crisis is another stab in a back to the “poor” because your ability to have children shouldn’t be jeopardised because of your financial state. If only they paid people what they deserve instead of exploiting them and providing more support financially and mentally for both parents

They would actually have to see a bright future for their children in China and they don't.

This world is just becoming more and more expensive and uninhabitable by the day it’s scary. It’s probably best to just live our short lives to the fullest and be happy with no children, than to bring one in and have them grow up just to suffer and clean up the mess of a dying world.

damn and i thought the cicadas in texas were loud!

I mean Nordic countries have good policy for pregnant mothers leaving from work, people work few hours but have high salary, yet they still have low birth rate. People just don't children and want to enjoy their own lives. They keep saying money is an issue but poor countries make lot of children (not necessarily saying they'll be in safe healthy environment, but that doesn't stop them..) I kinda want children cause I don't want to be lonely, want to pass on my genes, and don't want to die alone. Some people say you should adopt, you shouldn't in this economy, world and climate but I don't really care about that cause it doesn't affect me personally. But I probably won't have any either cause I'm not ready. I seen some people at my college already married and had kids, I was shocked 😂

Kind of hard for them to do with the 2 child policy

I've been married 4 years now, at 34, and I don't think I want babies. Since economy and inflation is crazy nowadays. I can barely support myself and wife.

If you look at the population of China’s cities you’ll see that population decrease isn’t the problem, the problem is not knowing how to deal with it. During middle Qing and early Communist era China had an explosion of population, it’s saturated, thus very hard to develop HDI and GDP per capita. Caring programs, pensions and incentive to immigration should be on the government’s minds, as well as more reliance on technology.

I watched a film recently about people not having kids in the future because it was considered sadistic and suicidal. To be honest we aren't that far off, it's already considered selfish...