The one-child policy might have successfully controlled the population that is beneficial to economic development. However, how does the one child generation construct China’s future? Amy Cheung reports.   Annie Zhang, 24, is a returnee from her American university education. Wearing Ferragamo sunglasses, Calvin Klein jeans, Chanel perfume and MAC make-up, she goes to hip places like Element Fresh for casual lunch and Laris for Martinis. With mere 5000RMB salary a month, she honestly claims that she gets a lot of help from her parents considering her spending habits. She is a typical one-child that walks around Shanghai.   Since its launch in 1981, China’s one-child policy is designated to control one of the world’s biggest populations. 15 years’ later, the first generation of one child is about to enter society as fresh graduates from university. So how are they doing at home, in school and in the office?   Obviously, Shanghai provides a very competitive environment for this generation. Job-hunting in the city is what gives the most stress to students especially those who are not from Shanghai. According to Julia Zhu, an English Assistant Professor in East China Normal University in Shanghai, the policy affects their behavior in terms of having all attention from family members, and do not really value the process of receiving something by first putting effort into it.   This code of conduct common among one child shapes a professional environment unfavourable to team work. Mats Johansson, the Chairman of Swedish Chamber of Commerce and also the General Manager of Fagerhult, comments that one child policy creates extreme individualism under which compromise is lack.   “This one child generation has been raised in too protective environment,” he comments, “They are used to being the centre of attention and find it difficult to reconcile differences with others. Another problem is they are over-confident of their personal qualities so they believe in immediate rewards. Even if they are given such higher positions as managers, they often need supervision and assistance. However, they are too restless to learn from scratch.”   Johansson continues to point out that the education system has to change to insert better values to the young generation: “People need to learn other values than solely competing for money is important to life.”  Judging from this perspective, apart from competitiveness and education, the young workforce in Shanghai city needs healthy mentality and motivation in order to construct a positive personal as well as professional environment beneficial to all.