“人太多“ – Ren Tai Duo – is an idiom one is accustomed to hearing in China. It literally means “Too Many People” but its sub-context implies to a feeling of frustration expressed by a person who lives in the most populated country in the world.
The fact that China is the most populated country in the world effects the way of life in many different aspects. Be it privacy, competition in the job market or driving in a major city crowded streets, “Too Many People” impact everyday life in China in a way that is unfamiliar to the western world.
Consider this: The size of China is roughly the size of the United States (3.7 million square miles). Its population is estimated at 1.32 billion people, while the population of the United States is estimated at approximately 310 million people. Therefore, in China, there are currently more than four times the people than there are in America. The population of China is the equivalent to the populations of the United States, France, The United Kingdom, Spain, Canada, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Argentina, Italy, South Korea and Japan combined.
With Too Many People in China, the expectations citizens have towards their country are different from those of citizens of western countries. China needs to take care of its population by making sure it is well-fed and well-clothed. As China is growing economically, it wants to insure that each and every citizen can access education, can hold a decent job and can retire respectfully. The challenge is onerous, and no other nation in history has had to face such conditions.
The Consequences of having “Too Many People”:
Competition in the job market is fierce. According to the New York Times in an article published about the competitive college graduate job market situation: “In 1999, the government began a push to expand college education — once considered a golden ticket — to produce more professionals to meet the demands of globalization. This year, more than 6.3 million graduates will enter the job market, up from one million in 1999. But the number of high-skilled, high-paying jobs has not kept pace.” This means that it is much more difficult today to find a job than it was 10 years ago. The competition expresses itself not only by the ability of recent graduates to find a job, but also in the salaries of already graduated students. According to statistics published last month by a top Chinese labor researcher and reported by the Beijing Times: “Despite entering a robust economy that seemed to weather the financial crisis as if were it a middling squall, China’s college graduates on average make only 300 yuan, or roughly $44, more per month than the average Chinese migrant worker.” This phenomenon is caused because of too many people that are qualified for certain jobs. When more people are qualified for a limited number of positions, salaries decrease.
In addition, with a population of 1.32 billion people, one must consider the effects on individualism in such a society. According to the Miriam-Webster dictionary, individualism is defined as: “a theory maintaining the political and economic independence of the individual and stressing individual initiative, action, and interests.” It is no secret that political independence of the individual does not exist in modern China. Nevertheless, more people are becoming economically independent; A situation that provides them with some sense of individualism. Moreover, if China were to compete with leading nations such as the United States, it must emphasize creativity and innovation within its people. Stressing individual initiative, action and interests is not an easy task when the nation must consider 1.32 billion different people.
The western world consistently criticizes Beijing for various reasons, most of them are related to individualism. In fact, there is not a single nation in the world today that had to go through what China is undergoing in the past three decades: strong economic growth in a very short period of time while insuring all of its citizens are taken care of in terms of food, shelter and clothing. I do not intend to overlook individualism as a key right for every global citizen. However, one must consider these restrictions and the simple fact that there are too many people in China, when discussing the individualism issue.
The challenges facing modern China are many and intricate. Yet, they are all intertwined with the “Too Many People” phenomenon. Because Beijing decided in 1978 to become a part of the modern world and because since then its growth is unprecedented at its rate, it now faces challenges other nations have never faced before. The government must provide with a job, a place to live and food for every of its 1.32 billion citizens; It also must insure that today’s youth will be able to compete with the west and thus provide it with proper education opportunities and a safe and secure living environment. The Chinese government is finding it difficult to provide these seemingly basic rights for all of its people simply because every Chinese citizen wants and deserves an equal chance of a prosperous life.
I wonder if Chinese people fully understand these challenges, and if they appreciate the efforts taken by the government in overcoming them.
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Lior Paritzky is the Editor in Chief and Manager of Laowaiblog, an internet platform that provides opinion and views about social phenomena in modern China. Look for Lior on Twitter: Liorpari 
Lior, you sure you are not Chinese?
Every little thing when comes to 1.32billion is becoming Giant, education, living,health care etc.
Every large thing when meets 1.32billion is small, like GPD.
Lior, you are understanding Chine at the right way.
Cheers!
Dear Lior,
I roughly agree with your point of view that there are too many people in china and the restriction of individualism here. You have the true feeling about the phenomenon as a foreigner, while even some chinese citizens don’t catch sight of it. However, you didn’t expose the deep reasons of how they could be happened.
Talking about the large population, which is the core reason why china has a rapid growth in economy. Human is the social capacity and if we have a lot of people so then our country will be strong against other nations, as what our previous chairman Mao emphasized. Everyone do his/her job independently and contribute to the country combined to a flourishing Gross Domestic Product. Cheap labor, cheap product, etc. and now turn out crowded streets and congested human resource market. Result in many children under-education and sizable quantities graduates without job and lots of retired couldn’t afford their living and medical care.
Individualism, in contrast, as a result of the authorities scares that citizens and individuals would say something secretly and hold together to threaten them. The minority authorities have to take how and what the folks saying under control in order to protect their benefits beyond threatened. The folks have to say and act what and how the authorities say and act, which naturally come out a blueprint of harmony society.
I have to stop here in order to protect myself because I tell the truth a few. Hope you have a good living in china.
Peter Foo
Peter, I totally agree with you. The reason why China has such a big population is lack of individualism. People are following government’s call without hearing a second voice.
@Lior
i quite agree with you points – especially your wondering if people (regardless if local or foreign) “fully understand these challenges” anyone faces governing 20% of the world’s population
your number games might be more jaw-dropping if you’d put in some info on how the density is in the eastern provinces versus the much less densely populated western provinces…
@shelby
can’t quite agree with you – if it wasn’t for the one-child-policy, there’d probably be 400 million more folks looking for food, shelter, health care, education, etc, etc… so policy vs. individualism somewhat limited population growth and all the problems that comes with it… can you agree with that?
人山人海 – Learn to love it!
Also, as someone else said, you really have to look at density numbers- in a typical U.S. city you might have to drive an hour from the center of a city to get passed the city and the suburbs. In China, a 15 minutes drive (assuming no traffic) could take you out into sparsely populated villages that are only for farmers. The massive Chinese population – more so now than ever before – is crammed into massive cities. Just look at Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing…. I could go on and on…
The reason why there seems to be too many people in China is due to the fact that the population are highly concentrated in cities. As Adam Smith noted in the Wealth of Nations, cities are the drivers of economic growth. Chinese people are out to get rich, hence many naturally choose to congregate in cities, creating various social problems associated with overpopulation. As noted by Joe, the countryside are actually quite sparsely populated.
Hence it is logical and rational for the government to develop more cities in various regional rural area such as the plan to create a network of 200 megacities even if they result in temporary ghost cities. Policies to restrict population movement such as Hukou is also necessary because you just can’t have the entire Chinese population out looking for work in Shanghai. In this sense it is really not too different from immigration restriction by developed countries worldwide.
AusChin, I totally agree with you.
Once again, Population issue has been challenge for China since this civilization existed. It would be biased if we only think its all Government’s fault. In fact, every movement and policy towards population issue in china will certainly bring two-side influence. Like One-child policy, it avoid the population out of control but bring the risk of labor shrotage in future.
And as my point, Individualism isn’t suitable for this nation. The restriction of “individual behavior” would create the stability of society, and strength the execution as well. One of the major reason why China has developed better than India is the “effiency issue”. We are good at problem-solving, not problem-discussing. That why we have achieved amazing result of manufacturing and construction but not innovation.
It really is a contrevisial issue here so that I can say there is a positive or negative trend for China’s future. But I think it will be a huge-challenge for Government to deal with this issue properly
Hi Shuyuan,
You are absolutely right. I think that the problems that the government needs to deal with are too complex and too complicated, and on one hand it hopes they will go away on their own, but on the other hand it knows that they won’t so it is doing everything it can to resolve them. Too many people means you have to take care of food for everyone, for jobs, for homes… it’s insane. I am in awe of how China has successfully faced so many challenges until now.