Tech is Reshaping the Relationships Between Chinese Kids and Parents
From ‘Tiger Moms’ to Involution and Eye Health - tech is playing a fundamental role in changing the relationships between young people and their parents in China.
To understand a bit more about this space, we sat down to have a chat with Bonnie Wang - a researcher and a semiotician with a specialism in China. Bonnie shared her thoughts on the youth media space currently, exploring the ways she believes that kids and parents’ relationships with tech have evolved over the past 20 years and they are now starting to ‘use tech well’… have a read!
How is technology changing the relationships between kids and parents?
Auger Insights: In the past year alone, we've seen news stories coming out of China around restrictions placed on gaming and media use. However, today I'm talking to Bonnie Wang. She's a researcher and semiotician about just how some of those attitudes towards media in China might be shifting, particularly in the kids' space. Bonnie, how are you?
Bonnie Wang: Hi, I'm good. How are you, Sam?
AI: Just paint us a quick picture, if that's all right: What does normal media usage look like in China today among kids?
BW: I think for kids, maybe those under eight years old, the permitted time to use media or this kind of tech from the parents is usually after school or kindergarten. Usually kids will go to school and, when they come back, one of the first things that they will do is watch TV or use media or apps. So it is a time for them to just kind of relax - it’s a little bit of a reward for the day at school because they learned something. Once the parents come back, they will have meals together and then after meal some schools will have homework, even for kindergarten kids. Once they finish, they will do a bit of play with tech again.
That's for weekdays, it's a bit different at the weekend. Kids are being sent to extracurricular things like painting or even doing schoolwork and stuff. So there's a lot of time that's spent on the way going to these activities and coming back. This fragmented time is filled with playing with the apps, watching videos, and those sort of activities.
AI: Traditionally, looking backwards, what have parents thought about their kids' media usage?
BW: I think if we talk about the last 20 years, I think it tends to be kind of negative. In the past, parents haven’t seen almost any benefit from watching TV or playing games.
However, it has changed quite a lot recently. Parents are much more open to kids getting to contact with these new developments, particularly among post-80’s/post-90’s parents who grew up with these technologies. When those adults were in their adolescence, they started to get in contact with these technologies and they now definitely see the technology making their life more joyful, and also benefiting from it.
And then the society is also changing, so parents also see a lot of opportunities from working in this media landscape. I think one of the best paid jobs in China has been an influencer. Although it's slightly still frowned upon, but it's an opportunity. There's opportunities in all these kind of things, and they don't want their kids to lose out from any of these opportunities.
I think one word you hear quite a lot recently in the last three, four years is ‘involution’, which means that the amount of effort that you put into a work doesn't necessarily pay off. That tends to be talking about linear progression, like in the promotion in the company or examinations and competing with fellow students to get into college.
What involution does is it makes people not want to put that much effort into just being ‘okay’.
Again, it's about the linear progression, but then if you spread it wide, you find a lot of different opportunities. So you find your niche and then that you can progress there. It's not all that passive – we'll just stop working and play – but it's about finding opportunities through playing.
AI: Are there other kind of opportunities that parents see in the media space when it comes to what their kids are doing?
BW: There's a way of thinking, I think it's just ‘using technology well’. Parents are starting to evaluate their ‘me time’ a bit more. There's a stereotype with Chinese parents, especially women, for being ‘tiger moms’. But I think there's now a slight change to that: They also want to be a woman themselves. They have their own time, they're not only a mom.
It is because driving the kids to schools takes so much time and they're waiting in the car for the kids to finish the school that takes like an hour or two hour. And then they drive back. So their whole weekend is just spent on the kids.
‘Tiger Moms’ are starting to re-evaluate their ‘me-time’ in China - and apps/media for kids can play a big role
What these apps does is that they free the mom from having to be constantly paying attention to the kids. And then we mentioned that parents like to send kids to extracurricular schools. There is also, again, a lot of these companies starting to provide online classes - which also create more ‘me time’. It's not a phenomenon just after the pandemic - it started before.
But with these apps, now you get to spend time with your kids at home - but then the kids can also learn drawing, learn singing through all those online apps without going to a physical school. So I think there's a benefit for the for the parents in these areas as well.
AI: So there's benefits for the kids: they can learn and they can kind of grow through these apps. There's also benefits for the parents, that they're getting some time back. Is there is there an opportunity here as well for bonding between kids and parents to occur when they're using these different kinds of digital products?
BW: We always talk about the generation gap. It's very difficult to get into what the kid is thinking about. So all these media serve as a stimulation for parents for talking about things that their children like. During normal conversations the kids will bring characters from the cartoons they like into their daily conversation. Maybe they're sharing a meal about eating something and kids will be like, ‘Oh, what would Peppa Pig think about this meal’ or something like that. So the parents now knows what they're talking about.
Gaming is maybe a more active bonding moment. Switch has kind of kicked-off in big cities in China. I think Switch has a lot of multiplayer games as well as those quite physical games. You need to use your body to do things, like in the game ‘Just Dance’.
One important thing for Chinese parents is a the physicality of kids. Physical health is quite important for these parents when they grew up. It was safe to play outside. Now, as China develops, there's more automobiles on the road. And there's also more anonymity in the neighbourhood. So there is less trust. Instead of having kids playing outside to get physical exercises, there's a lot more need for physical exercises at home. So games like ‘Just Dance’ provide these kind of opportunities.
AI: We’ve spoken about this fascination with health before and I know you talked about playing outside and how gaming and digital media is starting to kind of replace some of that - but what is the focus around eye health in China when it comes to media? Is that something that parents and kids are thinking about right now?
BW: I don't know actually why, but eye health is extremely important in China!
Traditionally, kids were asked to do eye exercises after every two classes at school. So you will start to play the music and then you'll count one, two, three, four. And then the whole class will close their eyes and do an exercise. Somebody will check that all the kids have their eyes closed and are actually doing that. It is a cultural phenomenon – parents don't want to see their kids starting to wear glasses from a younger age.
Eye health is a big focus among parents and kids in China
So with all these screens, eyesight and eye health are definitely big concerns. Something these technologies are doing is that they can allow parents to set a timer on it, or a ‘child mode’. So once you enter the child mode, the app will sometimes shut the screen down and will tell you ‘your mom wants you to stop looking at the screen and look afar for five minutes or something’. And then the kids will not be able to use the screen during that time.
These devices can also detect how close or far you are with the screen. So if you're too close, again, the device will warn you that you're too close to the screen: ‘Please move your body backward or move the screen away’.
AI: Bonnie, this has been really fascinating! It's been really interesting to hear your thoughts on all of this. If people want to learn a bit more about you, get in touch, and hear more of your thoughts, where should they go?
BW: You can find me on LinkedIn, Bonnie Wong. And then you can send me an email at bunnydarko.w [at] gmail.com.
AI: Bonnie, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today.
BW: It's been great! Thank you, Sam.
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