PENG XIN MING: I think I’m quite a strong person, both in my dreams and in real life. When I dream about my job, I usually don’t encounter many difficulties. I think when you meet people face to face; they are pretty easy to deal with. We can learn a lot from observing successful people and how they communicate with others. For example, we can learn a lot about how to run our own company.
    Once I dreamed that I had my own company. I went to the factory in order to talk to my employees. We were talking in a very open and democratic way. I felt very close to the employees and I wanted to help them whenever they had a problem.
    This dream always makes me wonder whether one person can really do so many things. I mean, in my dream I tried to talk to every one of my employees, I wanted to understand what they were thinking. Actually, in real life, I’m usually one of the first who go and talk to the bosses when there’s a problem. I also often dream about talking to my superiors, more often actually than about talking to other employees.
    I don’t do housework, that’s not for me. I don’t know how to cook or to iron clothes. Most of the time I focus on my career. My place is always a mess. When friends come by to see me, they help me clean up a little. Women like me are considered incompetent in China. But I think it’s OK to be that way. I can’t stand this idea that a woman should stay home and be a “good woman”. I prefer working all day long rather than staying at home cooking dinner.
    I’m thinking a lot about how I would raise my own children. I studied social sciences and I know how children are affected by growing up with very little attention from their parents. A few days ago I talked to a colleague about this. I think it’s very important that parents teach their children how to analyze problems for themselves instead of giving them all the answers. For example, when children do a bad thing, don’t just tell them that they shouldn’t do that. You should help them analyze and understand why they can’t do such a thing. Also, you should try to understand what the children think because everyone has their own ideas and values. Listen to the children!
    Nowadays, Chinese parents don’t do that, they only tell their children the answers. I don’t want to be one of those parents. If I ever have a child, I’ll talk to him or her as an equal. I want to teach him or her how to deal with problems in a rational way and I want to listen to what he or she says. I don’t want to raise my child the way my mother raised me. My mother used to tell me “Don’t do this, don’t do that” and when I asked her why I couldn’t do it she just said, “Because you can’t”. I think that’s the wrong way to educate children. I firmly believe that there would be no bad people in society if everyone had things explained rationally by their parents.