On the Overdependence of China’s
                             College Students on Their Parents

In the United States, students generally seek an independent life at 18. They take on part-time jobs, live away from their parents, and finance their own education partially, if not completely. Upon graduation, they find a job, or launch their own business by filing for loans from the bank. They live in rented apartments even after marriage and buy a house only when they can afford it. This is a typical pattern how the American younger generation grows up.

By contrast, most college students in present-day China, as the sole children of their families, take for granted their excessive dependence upon their parents. They hold their parents responsible for furnishing them with all the tuitions and living expenses. They seldom work part-time to alleviate their parents of their burdens. They have expensive dinners and birthday celebrations with their parents’ hard-earned money through months of hard work.

In recent years, under the pretext of employment difficulty, some students return home to live with their parents after graduation. While their parents are busy at work, they idle away their time day after day, least concerned with finding a job to have their own source of income. Worse still, they exhaust every penny of their parents and even grandparents to buy an apartment for their own enjoyment. In doing so, they even plunge their parents into serious debts.

This group of students have come to acquire an infamous name—“the Elderly-Devouring Community”. A more understandable phrase might be “parasites”. This community has come into existence as a result of long-time over-indulgence on the part of parents and the indolence and selfishness on the part of students themselves. Compared with their American counterparts, Chinese students should feel ashamed of themselves and take immediate actions to terminate their elderly-devouring behavior and become independent and self-reliant.

                                       啃老族现象


        在美国，学生一旦年满18，普遍都要去寻找自己独立的人生。他们从事兼职工作，搬出家庭，与父母分开居住；即使不是全部，也会部分地支付他们接受教育的费用。毕业之际，他们会找份工作，或向银行贷款来自己进行创业；即使是结婚成家之后，也仍住在租来的公寓里；只有当他们具备了足够的支付能力之后，才会去购房。这就是美国年轻一代典型的成长模式。

        与此相反，当下中国的大多数大学生，作为其家庭中的独生子女，将他们对父母的过度依赖视为理所当然。他们认为，父母亲有责任来为他们提供大学学习期间所有的学费及生活费。他们很少去做兼职的工作以减轻父母的负担。他们拿着父母工作数月才能赚得的来之不易的钱，出入昂贵的饭馆，举办生日庆祝晚会。

        近年来，打着就业难的借口，有些大学生毕业之后回到家中，与父母住在一起。在其父母忙于工作的同时，他们却日复一日地虚耗着光阴，丝毫没有出去找工作、拥有其独立经济来源的心思。更为糟糕的是，他们会耗竭父母、甚至爷爷奶奶的每一个铜板，就是为着去购房供自己享受。在这么做的过程中，他们甚至令其父母债台高筑。

        这一学生群体，现在已获得了一个臭名昭著的称呼——“啃老族”。一个更清晰易懂的说法可能就是“寄生虫一族”。该群体之所以得以形成，原因在于其父母长期的溺爱，以及学生自身的懒惰与自私。与其美国同龄人相比，中国学生应为自己感到羞愧，并应立即行动起来，终止其“啃老”行为，去寻找自己独立的人生，自食其力。