Before, even though peasants in the village worked hard on the land the year through, they still lived incredibly impoverished lives. Although the wages of those who were successfully smuggled abroad were meager, they were equivalent to quite a considerable sum in renminbi, and they often lived frugally, saving up money to send back home, allowing their families to enjoy a better quality of life.

However, due to the fact that diamonds are very costly, in order to buy one a lot of men will have to pinch in pennies.

That's called having some guts! We used to be really poor, and what we said didn't matter. But now China's different. How about showing some pride at being from a powerful country! The ancient virtues of gentleness, respect, frugality and deference-- isn't it clear that these are just an invitation for others to take advantage of us?

A mother's instinct at such a young age. Looking at the toys nowadays, you could say we've fallen behind the times. When my son was little, we started having imported toys: Transformers, Barbie dolls, and what have you. As parents, in order to buy toys for our children, we'd have to live simply.