My Only Loving Idol - Essay Example

Zhang English Oct. 19, My only Loving Idol In my life, my father is the only one who I admire the most. He is a powerful man who can hold the entire sky for me. He always tells me that he is the luckiest one in this world, not only because he had the opportunity to attend a good university, but also because he had a wonderful life through he struggled a lot in reach. My father works really hard and he is actually the sole breadwinner of the family. Everything that my father does is actually a good example for me to follow. There is no doubt that my father is my only idol. One significant event that shaped my father’s life and his worldview is the infamous Chinese revolution that took place in the early 60s; this phenomenon shaped the attitude, the morals, and the goals of my father. My father was born in 1964, right after the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Due to the Cultural Revolution, the economy of China collapsed. Poverty was the normal status in many families in China. And, due to the large number of deaths in the war, the government encouraged people to have more children, and then this led to large families, with many children. This fact made many poor families poorer because of the increase in family spending. In my father’s memories, he was hungry all the time when growing up, as well as he would never wear any new clothes and shoes. The only exceptions would be during the New Year, because it was only big events like New Year, he would have the opportunity to eat something that was new like rice. Because of the poor childhood, my father is frugal and does not waste any of his resources. The hard economic times caused by the Chinese revolution made my father to be frugal. Frugality, therefore, is one of the attitudes of my father’s generation that was shaped by the phenomenon of Chinese revolution. My father worked very hard, right after he finished college, because he had no other option, but to work hard and to be successful, if he wanted to continue living in Beijing. Meanwhile, my father had to start everything from zero because his father did not have any money or suggestion to give to him. And this is obviously the gift for the elder generation. Although it could be risky and challenging, my father had never given up the opportunity to maintain his own business until today. He always tells me the story about his struggling process. From these stories, it is quite obvious that my father is proud of his efforts in life and his success. And fortunately, people were given a lot of opportunities to start their own business at that time, so as to overcome the negative impacts of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Chinese government promised a lot of encouragements to the people, which were designed to help them to start their own business. It is easy to see that people in that particular generation had the spirit to be entrepreneurs. In my view, the attitude of hard work and frugality that was shaped by the phenomenon of Chinese Cultural Revolution is the main reason behind creation of wealth in China, in my father’s generation. And this also explains why there was a large amount of young Chinese people craving to start their own businesses. Working hard and working independently are the keywords for my father’s generation. Because my father grew up in a very poor family, he had nothing but himself. So that is why he cherished every opportunity he had, both possible and impossible opportunities. Since a large amount of new children were born because of the huge death in the war, more jobs were created. The Chinese market was finally opened, and people were having a lot of choices to pick up whatever they wanted. My father took full advantage of that, which eventually became wealth and fortune in the future. Be able to catch every possible opportunity was really important to the elder generation of my father. Everyone was on the same starting point. My father started his work by selling computers, and computer spare parts at the very beginning. The life was so hard and he used to hawk his products from one store to the other store to sell day by day. My father would spend countless hours research in the bookstore, which helped him a lot because he did not go to school to study IT. While he made money out of it, he also made IT as an interest of his. Nothing can describe him better than hardworking. Because he understands what is going to happen, once he does not work hard enough. This is also a common spirit that I find the people in their generation have. And one time, he caught the opportunity to build up a computer company with his friends; this decision changed his whole life. The Chinese cultural generation, therefore, made the generation of my father to be aggressive in looking for opportunities to succeed in life. Most of the people of my father’s generation knew, or at least experienced the poor lifestyle caused by the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The people of my generation have never encountered this kind of challenge. My father always tells me that I should not waste my time playing or doing something else other than studying since I am a student. This also explains why there are so many Chinese students working really hard in schools. This fact, therefore, shows that the Chinese cultural revolution made the people of my father’s generation to be hardworking. Another interesting thing that many people in my father’s generation usually have in common is gambling. Macau, as a gambling city in Asia, welcomes thousands of people that are from my father’s generation daily. My conclusion is that people from my father’s generation love making a lot of money easily. In my view, due to the hard times that the people of my father’s generation went through as a result of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, they developed the desire to make money easily. Many people in my father’s generation, therefore, are materialistic. Growing up in an extremely destitute environment, my father and people who are from his generation knew how to survive and to earn their living. For this reason, therefore, we can conclude that, due to the difficult economic times, caused by the Chinese cultural revolution, the people of my father’s cultural generation developed the values of hard work, frugality, and aggressiveness. My father always explains to me the advantage of heaving the characteristics, and I know he wants to give me everything he believes is good to me. My father’s attitude to life, therefore was shaped by the Chinese cultural revolution; my father is indeed, forever, my only loving idol. Read More