There are reasons why many youths appear gloomy

'Our young people look old!" says a recent article in People's Daily and goes on to describe the 1980s generation as "gloomy", "unenergetic" and "behaving in a manner that is too mature for their age".

This description is not true of all the people born in the 1980s, and even those that fit the description have enough reasons to be so. For instance, many of those born in the 1980s took the lead in the relief and rescue operation after an earthquake struck Ya'an in Sichuan province on April 20.

Also, the 1980s generation has excelled in all professions. In 2011, a survey conducted by a job search website found that 40.5 percent of the 1980s generation was holding key positions in companies and 16.3 percent had even risen to the level of middle managers.