Born in the 1970s - Zheng Zhe, 34
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Zheng Zhe’s dream is simple and sweet. He wants to become a master chef and open a street-corner restaurant.
“In the opening hours, I could cook for those who stop by and love my food,” says the 34-year-old IT manager. “And when the restaurant is closed for the night, I could cook for the one I love.”
Zheng grew up in the small town of Liaoyuan in northeastern China. His parents were sent to a remote farm there as part of the “re-education in the countryside.” He still remembers the blustery cold winters, the snowy forests and the little courtyard where the family grew vegetables.
In 1985, Zheng returned to Shanghai with his parents. Like many children of his generation, he was forced to live in a cramped apartment shared with other families.
“Crowded but happy,” says Zheng, one of the first generation of China’s one-child policy. “But I never felt lonely.”
The children in his residential building used to form teams to play games and explore the neighborhood, he says.
In 1994, when China was undergoing industrial restructuring, Zheng’s father was laid off work and started his own businesses — running a bakery and a pharmacy. That same year, his father bought Zheng a computer that cost 12,000 yuan (US$1,960), a princely sum at the time.
Zheng learned to surf the Internet, spending so much time on the computer that he failed to qualify for a spot in an academic high school and had to settle for vocational training in vehicle maintenance and repair.
“I thought my life was pretty screwed up, but then the nation launched a policy that gave me renewed hope,” he says.
In the late 1990s, vocational school students were allowed to apply for college admission for the first time. He took cram courses and studied into the wee hours of every morning. His diligence paid off. He was admitted to a junior college at Tongji University. Three years later, just when he was about to graduate, another new policy was adopted that allowed junior college students to apply for university degree programs.
After majoring in computers and software at Tongji, Zheng was finally admitted to the prestigious university. In 2002, he went on to graduate school, earning an master’s degree in 2005, just when the first wave of software development was sweeping across China.
Today he works as an IT manager for Dell, with a handsome salary of 400,000 yuan (US$65,280) a year. “My current life seems too smooth, so much that it scares me,” Zheng confesses. “I want changes and passions.”
One of Zheng’s passions is food. That began when he was a small boy. Zheng’s grandfather was a soldier and after the civil war, he returned to civilian life and became a chef in Meixin restaurant, a time-honored eatery.
“I liked the food my grandfather cooked,” says Zheng. “Though I was young at the time, I greatly admired those who could skillfully use cooking utensils and whip up delicious meals.”
So Zheng enrolled in a cooking school. This summer he passed his tests for certification as an intermediate chef.
“My major is computers and software, and my hobby is cooking,” he says. “So I was thinking of opening a small restaurant one day, equipped with an online booking system that I personally develop.”
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