A few weeks ago, Sohu.com published a story called Life Changes in Beijing in the last 20 Years: Women Begin to Have Time to Have Fun and Men Are Further Away from Kitchen.
Danwei reader Zhang Xiaomin sent in the below translation:
Beijing Evening Daily reports, the Leisure Economics Research Center of the People’s University recently conducted a survey on Beijingers’ time allocation in the past 20 years. The survey found that compared to twenty years ago, Beijingers spend more time traveling, sleeping and working. Beijing women begin to have time to have fun as men do, and Beijing men are further away from kitchen.
Housework: 40 minutes less per day
According to the 2006 survey, the average leisure time for Beijing residents is 4 hours per day. It increased by 43 minutes from 1996. The total labor time decreased by 2 hours and 20 minutes, among which social labor (i.e. job) time decreased by 1 hour and 40 minutes, and domestic labor time decreased by 40 minutes. Social labor time is 11 hours and 40 minutes less a week, an equivalent of 1.5 workdays. Based on this calculation, compared to 20 years ago, Beijingers work two months less a year!
Leisure Activities: Beijingers seek variety
Beijingers’ common leisure activities, such as socializing, tutoring children, studying (other than formal education), rest, etc., all decreased by different degrees. But the time spent on TV / radio / newspaper / magazines increased by 39 minutes. There is a 4-minute increase in exercising, 5-minute increase in walking in a park. There was no category for “Internet” in 1986. The average time Beijingers spent online in 2006 was 22 minutes per day.
Leisure Time: More Increase in Women than Men
Twenty years ago, women in Beijing had 3 hours and 27 minutes [per day] of leisure time, while 4 hours and 23 minutes for men. Twenty years later, men still have more leisure time than women: 5
hours and 5 minutes and 4 hours and 26 minutes respectively. But the increase among women is greater than among men.
Cooking Time: Men Cook Less and Less
The socialization of domestic work, eating out and the improvement of kitchenware caused Beijingers to spend less and less time cooking at home. The survey shows that Beijingers spent 20 minutes less cooking everyday on average. The decrease is greater on rest days. In 1986, men spent 44 minutes cooking, which was 65% of the 1 hour and 8 minutes women spent in cooking. Whereas in 2006, men spent 21 minutes in cooking, 43% of the time women cook.
Sleeping Time: 49 Minutes More Per Day
The survey shows Beijingers spent 49 minutes more sleeping everyday over the past 20 years, with a 37-minute increase on week days and 1 hour and 20 minutes increase on rest days.
Wang Qiyan, the director of the Leisure Economics Research Center, explains that the reasons include the increase of rest days, and Beijing’s aging population. In addition, the increased of stay-home women is also an important contributing factor to the increase in average sleeping time.
Work Commute: 21 Minutes More Everyday
Beijingers spend 9 more minutes commuting between work and home. That is a 21-minute increase on week days and 5 minutes on weekend.
Wang explains that the 9-minute increase in commuting is a result of various factors. On one hand, with the expansion of the city and people moving to suburbs, the distance between work and home
increased. On the other hand, the improvement of road conditions and transportation facilities shortened commute time.