Have we reached peak China? How the booming middle class hit a brick wall

News Snapshot:

Holding her newborn daughter, Lynne, 33, feels apprehensive about the future. Her elder son, though adorable, is already draining the family coffers and he hasn’t even started school yet. His private kindergarten in Beijing costs 80,000 yuan (US$11,ooo) a year. Extracurricular classes, including 10 hours a week of English, sports, painting and online tutorials, cost another 60,000 yuan (US$8,300). She already knows that his five-month-old sister won’t get the same resources. “I don’t have the energy to jiwa again,” she says, using a Mandarin term for helicopter parenting. She longs for her home town of Xingtai, a small city in...