Let’s say you were born in China. You’re an only child. You have two parents and four grandparents doting on you. Sometimes they even call you a spoiled little emperor.

a look at the modern chinese political/economic system which makes it sound like the old imperial system has returned except there isn't an emperor in the old sense but that the old confusian bureaucracy has after a 1000 years finally taken full power under a nominally communist banner
it's fasinating the way the chinese culture assimilates and defeats invading forces (the mogols, the manchu and communism) then reemerges slightly different but essentially the same. This gels with my knowledge of fighting chinese style via tai chi

Of the softest things in the world,
Nothing is softer than water.
Any hard objects in the way
Will be defeated by water.
Water never changes.
Hence soft defeats hard
Weak defeats strong.
Everyone knows this
But few practise it.

from Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching (Section 78)

The Dictatorship of Talent - New York Times