China’s Reform Generation Adapts to Life in the Middle Class

The previous year, I had accompanied North when he dropped off his boy at the exam, and North's remarks had been similar. The month after the gaokao, Linda wrote that her son had tested into a good university, and that was exactly what had happened with North's boy, a year earlier. Sometimes North regretted his decision to leave his position at the hot-pickled-mustard-tuber company. "Since you aren't using the elevator, none of those things concern you," North said. North spoke gently and pointed to the permit; after a while, the man took out the tape measure again. Later, North told me that it was all a performance intended to prepare for further negotiations. He dropped out before middle school and headed off to Shanxi Province, in the north.