Family History - Personal Statement Example

FAMILY HISTORY; SOCIAL MOBILITY Essay Number] [Semester] I belong to a family which predominantly works in the business sector but that was not always the situation. Before migrating to Dalian, Liao Ning province my grandfather being Korean of origin and grandmother being Chinese, belonged to the rich social class. Then the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution took place under the headship of Mao ZeDong, chairman of the Communist Party of China, which shook the majority of our country’s economic stronghold. This Cultural Revolution was initiated in 1966 and had a life span of a decade. The most prominent man of this movement, Mao ZeDong, was against capitalist stance which he thought had gained access to China’s policies and economical threshold. His agenda involved their uprooting by utilizing people from different classes and social statuses in a struggle that led to many misfortunes and financial losses. People from throughout the country and all walks of life including armed forces, city and village responded actively and put forward their lives in an unprecedented participation. Not only in the country but within his party things were set straight as he set forth to eliminate the capitalist stance. Many prominent leaders of the party were absolved of their roles. (Schoenhals, 1996) So that era marked great struggle and strife. A larger percentage of the population was killed, tortured, harassed and locked up. The loss of property kept up the pace with the loss of life. Art and cultural relics were destroyed; the country was practically put to shambles. My grandparents were among the millions of people who were largely affected monetarily. Calling off the movement by Mao could not dissipate the fire ignited in the hearts of his activists so after his death the movement continued until it was able to pulverize what remained of the country’s economy. That was when my grandparents shifted domicile and my father was born in the northeastern part of China. Grandparents had to invest what little of capital remained into a makeup business and since then all of my family takes up with business. These social and economical rifts have enormous bearing on the country’s overall economic reliability as well the citizen’s security. Life would have been completely different had this movement not been set into motion. Social mobility is full of sacrifices and effort. It is extremely hard to abandon your place of settlement and move to a new locality with little resources and an entirely new environment. Moreover setting up a business becomes an immensely challenging task in such circumstances. Not only challenging but evanescent because the life of an entire family is at stake. Every small makeup business is usually at the threat of various external components. Internal environment along with external factors have far ranging effects on the workings of majority aspects pertaining to the solidarity of the business plan. These can either be opportunities or threats that tend to fluctuate more if not less. Politics and diplomatic events such as The Cultural Revolution created such suction tendencies by introducing a vacuum in the surroundings. This happens with much larger collateral if the constituent units fail to receive their due share of immunity or if their policies evoke or tend to political tides or waves. Despite the inevitability it is extremely hard for the new born business to steer clear of such political involvements and aftermaths. My Grandparents therefore adopted a simple rule of business management that was devoid any infiltrations by extremist elements. It was difficult in the beginning to work their own business because money was never a problem from them but now the winds were against them and something had to be done if their family was to survive the aftermaths of the revolution that took many lives. It is a major stance, to avoid political and diplomatic interventions in the smooth running of the business affairs. The owners had to take this into special consideration and therefore refrain from indulging into anything that stirs destruction even if mildly. They heeded special care of the people they were dealing with, being new in the area and knew the possible psychological side effects political upheavals had rendered on their neighbors. Any whiff of involvement in the political upheavals and a large scale prejudice and hatred was born. The major factor utilizing probably the majority of my grandparents’ concern was the fiscal policies. External crisis such as inflation, stock market ups and downs etcetera have huge bearings on the overall economic infrastructure but they were inexperienced and knew little of such minor details. Then came the hurdle of financial status of their particular locality as it played a driving role. So my grandparents had to chalk out fiscal policies considering the minutest details regarding the ongoing currency value, stock’s market and the economic solidarity of the country. They took care that their investments and fiscal policies were not a burden on the country’s economy and should be able to avoid blacklisting or interrogation. The community based factors for cross cultural trade are to be keenly observed when setting up a business in the new locality. These factors include their consuming habits, ethics and religious or moral obligatory activities. Everything from smaller ethnic groups in a locality to the more dominant religious circles were viewed, their eating habits studied and then the possible line of manufacture was laid out and put into action. Supplying meat products to purely vegetable consuming community can supply the overall retail and customer morale. Before planning out their business details my grandfathers took careful note of their demographics. Basically small businesses have far ranging roles towards the nation’s solidarity or dislodging. Political prejudices create anarchy, economical incompetency causes inflation, layman’s attitude towards society causes blacklisting. However it does reduce un-employment lessens inflation and creates an energetic impression of the society. Our family’s social mobility was full of struggle, sleepless nights, blunders, happy moments and little trinkets of joy. Some days were black and mournful when investments were a fraud, other days were aggressive competitive. Soon my father and uncle were old enough to deal with some aspects of the business. Slowly and gradually our small makeup business strengthened and was able to generate enough revenue. Small Business management is a very artistic, well planned and a carefully stipulated role. In order to reach an optimum level of stability enormous utilization of mental capacities was made by my grandparents. Taking risks is a part of life, in most of our daily professions be it entrepreneurs, pilots, doctors and even a common laborer. We invest money, hoping for a larger profit but we have no other refuge then to bank on it as the only source of income, all the while knowing that the whole business might tumble down like a house of cards. A realistic approach catered by strong self-criticism creates a perfect paradigm to modify our action according to the needs of the day. The most primitive needs should be satisfied completely first and then gradually other needs should be fulfilled but then again sometimes the most primitive needs only prove to be a hurdle in the overall growth and routine task execution. The higher importance tasks can only be efficiently performed if the lower basic necessities are met. When you start to satisfy higher needs they tend to becomes harder to achieve and the process increase in the amount of energy you put in but soon we were ready for it. My family saw a time when these primitive needs could not be met let alone acquisition of higher needs. From the time when money was not a problem to the time when it was all that we were worried for and now to the time when we have enough to think about satisfying higher needs. Nature and time work in splendid ways that often take you off guard but these ups and downs are important to bring out our latent abilities and survival potential in adverse situations. We are oblivious, rather ignorant of what could happen to us in the next second. Most of us think that we are less likely to suffer from a heart attack, a lung cancer, get divorced or have our house burnt down. Bitter may be, but this realistic approach is more fruitful than being positive for the inevitability of such phenomena. Most of us are wildly optimistic. Good things are permanent to us while for pessimists good things are evanescent, they fade away. So pessimists don’t cling their lives to it. Instead they move on looking for a refuge, something that would help them towards a better, safe tomorrow all the while looking out for hurdles and setbacks. When it pays to be precise, it pays to be a pessimist. Life is no more than a land of perspectives, however in the end, it rules by the survival of the fittest. Deception at the name of hoping to wake up tomorrow when your neighborhood is under attack is sheer idiocy. If only we would come out of our comfort zones and set forth towards a better understanding of life’s operation, acknowledge the bitter realities, would we be able to compete in Nature’s Arena. Reference Schoenhals, M. (1996). China’s Cultural Revolution, 1966-1969: Not A Dinner Party. Internet Resource. Read More