Three is better than two for happy parents

Couple who had twins on their second attempt say children spurred them to success

There are three reasons why Beijing businesswoman Wang Aimei thinks having more than one child in contemporary China is not only possible, but also wonderful.

Their names are Zang Cancan, Zang Wenjie and Zang Wujie, and they are the joy of her life.

In the wake of China's recently relaxed family planning rules, which are estimated to see 20 million people newly eligible to have a second child, local and Western pundits are hotly debating whether Chinese couples can afford to - and will want to - have another baby.

The story of Wang and husband Zang Zhubin, who are among the 37 percent of China's population that were already exempt from the one-child policy, reveals much about the potential challenges and rewards millions of others are now weighing.

Having more than one child in China can be a struggle financially, says Zang.

But while the most valuable rewards of having a big family can't usually be banked or counted, love isn't the only currency three children have brought Wang and Zang in surfeit.

The couple credit having three babies as the reason why they went from being a humble, rural fishing family to Beijing business owners who now earn an average of 10 million yuan ($1.65 million; 1.2 million euros) a year.

In 1993, Wang and Zang were living in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province. Wang worked as a seamstress from home and Zang as a fisherman.

Together, their combined earnings per year came to a modest 10,000 yuan. While they loved their then one-year-old daughter, Zang Cancan, they also wanted a son.

The majority of the 37 percent of Chinese people who are exempt from the one-child policy are rural dwellers, and for cultural and practical reasons typically allowed to have a second child in an attempt to have a boy, if their first child is a girl.

In Zang's case he was allowed to try for a son because he was a fisherman, and the dangers of the sea often claimed the lives of those who braved it for a living, or those of the children who followed their fathers into the hazardous profession.

"We have three children because we come from a southern city where many people do fishing in the sea for a living," Zang says. "Going out to sea is sometimes very dangerous, so we are allowed to have more than one child to make sure the family goes on."

Zang can still remember the fateful day his wife came home from the hospital in tears.

"When I was five months pregnant I went to the hospital and the doctor told me 'you're having twins'," Wang says. "I was afraid. I thought, we're so poor; we can't afford to have three children. Two alone costs lots of money. I remember I cried."

Determined to get ahead, the couple both worked and scrimped and saved for two years.

"We had three children very suddenly," says Wang. "We had to make a living. There was a lot of pressure. I realized I had to build a good business to give our children a quality life, so we came to Beijing."

Using their savings and money borrowed from relatives, Wang and Zang started a textile manufacturing business in the capital. Times were tough, initially.

"When we first came to Beijing we lived in a place that was just one room, 20 square meters in total," Zang says. "We cooked and lived in that one room. There was no bathroom."

Personal sacrifices also had to be made but the hard work eventually paid off.

Sitting in their well-appointed four-bedroom Beijing apartment with their daughter, the couple says these days they employ about 50 people.

Their daughter Zang Cancan is a fashion designer, and their twin boys, now 20, are studying finance and accounting at university. The couple has bought each of their children an apartment to live in and the family holidays together overseas and within China regularly.

"We have been very lucky to have three children," Wang says. "If I hadn't had three children, we wouldn't have been as successful as we are now. They motivated us to be successful, to earn more money to give them a good life."

Wang and Zang say having a big family is wonderful, but concede parents who are now considering a second child need to know it won't always be easy going.

"I think if you can afford it, it's very good and you will be very happy you did it," says Zang. "But the important deciding factor is economic: making sure you can afford to have more children."

In China, Wang says, this doesn't just mean being able to afford to clothe and feed the kids. In the highly competitive society that has developed in the past three decades under the one-child policy, being able to afford children really equates to being able to give them expensive education, international opportunities and even helping to set them up with housing when they leave home.

"If you have children you have to give them the good life, you have to try your best."

Their daughter Zang Cancan says the responsibility cuts both ways.

"My brothers and I will work hard because we hope one day to share the pressure and help our parents when they get old," she says. "I want my parents to have a good life when they finish work."

She says growing up with siblings has been a positive experience.

"When I was young they were annoying," she laughs. "But now we've grown up, I feel very lucky I have brothers to take care of me, to spend time with. It's really nice."

That China and attitudes toward children have changed since Wang and Zang's youth is evident from their daughter's plans.

"I don't want to have children," she says.

And this is despite an incentive on the table from her father, who says he will pay her a hefty cash bonus for every baby she has.

Career and travel, the 22-year-old says, are more important to her than babies right now.

With an estimated 20 million Chinese now weighing up the pros and cons of having a second child, Wang says she hopes more take the plunge.

"I hope every family can have more children," she says.

Whether they will or not is a matter of intense speculation.

Zang takes his time considering whether or not they could have afforded to have three children if they were young and just starting out, now.

The look on his face suggests he doesn't like the conclusion he arrives at, but he forces the words out anyway.

"No, never," he says. "We would only be able to have one."

Geng Lili contributed to this story.

josephcatanzaro@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 02/14/2014 page8)