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What would be your must-haves in the package?
In the 1980s, water bottles, lunch boxes and plastic basins were absolutely essential to a rookie college student who had just left home for campus life. Nowadays, electronic devices — smartphones, laptops, iPads are the must-haves.
The following four stories illustrate the sea change that has occurred in college campuses across the country over the past three decades.
Yang Jinsong from Guiyang, Guizhou province, was admitted to Shaanxi University of Science & Technology in1989.
Yang remembers back then the lunch box was the must-have item on the campus. "We all went to the canteen for three meals a day but there was no cutlery. Everyone carried a lunch box," he said.
According to him, his family wired him 80 yuan ($11.4) a month for food, books and living expense. People were thrifty as they didn't have spare money to spend on other than essential items. Students with better financial condition owned a portable recorder or a guitar.
The main entertainment was the game of poker. Sometimes Yang went out with his classmates to nearby suburbs as it did not cost much. The cameras were rare, so having a picture of the trip was out of question.
"We hardly ever went out for dinner since we didn't have money and everyone just went to the canteen. Most of us could only afford to have one meal with meat once a week," said Yang.
Back then, books and cassettes were valuable so they were used carefully.
Yang said students now are much better financially supported.
"At that time, we needed to find a job to support ourselves right after graduation. I was hard to find support from the family but now I think we definitely benefit from the support as it helps us to apply ourselves to the society," Yang said.
Li Min, not her real name, entered a college in Zhejiang province in 1998. Compared to 80s, she had around 800-900 yuan for monthly living expense.
"We went to the college with just some basic goods, but I did buy a beep pager to connect with my friends," said Li. "Mobile phones were rare."
At the end of 1990s, computers, online games and social media platforms were still some way off.
Li Min said she spent the most of her time studying. "I tried to save some money to pay for more books and exam fees. We basically depended on our family as there were not that many opportunities as there are now to get a part-time job."
Li added, "Life was quite simple back then."
Li Honghan enrolled in Zhengzhou University in 2003.
He said everything was still quite cheap back then. "It did not cost much if you had meals in the canteen. You could have good meals for a day on less than 10 yuan."
"I led a pretty good life on 400-500 yuan a month on food and daily items," Li said.
According to Li, mobile phones were not that common so most of them used public phones to contact their families and friends.
"I bought my first cellphone in 2007, a Nokia. It's not a smartphone," Li said.
He said as students they didn't have much money but had lot of fun just dinning together in the canteen. "We couldn't afford to go to restaurants but we were happy."
Li earned his first paycheck as a tutor in his last year in the college. Later, he wrote stories for newspapers and magazines for money. He was quite excited about it.
"I was raised to be considerate and tried not to burden my parents. So I wouldn't ask money from my parents for luxuries," said Li.
Born in 1996, Wang Jiazhen went to Suzhou University in 2014 to study journalism.
Technology takes up a big chunk of a college student's life in 21st century.
Wang's parents bought her mobile phone and computer when she was a freshman, which are must-have items now for students, just like everybody else.
Wang said she gets 1,500-2,000 yuan as monthly living expense that is the average level in the class.
"I spend about half on food, the other half on commute, clothes, cellphone bill, etc," said Wang.
"Then there are other expenses," she said. "We need to chip in for dinner when we hang out or buy presents for friends for special occasions like birthday or Valentine's Day."
Compared to the past, there're so many opportunities for college students to get a part-time job to make money on their own.
"I tried jobs like English teacher, hosting, recording and I think I did quite a good job," Wang said. She used the money she earned from the part-time jobs to buy a new computer, an iPhone and a camera.
What's in your schoolbag?
