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Born in the 1990s
(Beijing Today)
Updated: 2004-08-09 10:19
"Peking Opera is awful. Those lianpu look beautiful, but the rhythm of the
music is truly unpleasant to hear, and I cannot make out what they are singing
and talking about at all."
–Yeye, a Beijing boy who was born in 1994
Jay Chou is the
idol of many children who were born in the 1990s
[baidu] | People often talk about how the
differences between older and younger Chinese people seem to grow more
pronounced with each new generation. Some point to the advantages of greater
material comforts, wider channels of information, more open views, more choices
and more opportunities. But there’s also evidence that valuable cultural
tradition is being lost, as the outlook becomes more global.
Cola is their favorite beverage.
[Photocome] | News Weekly, a Guangzhou-based
magazine, conducted a survey on more than 100 children in Beijing, Shanghai,
Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Taipei, who were born from 1990 to 1995, about their
knowledge of traditional Chinese culture, modern Western culture, their life
attitudes, habits and consumption patterns.
The survey found that many of the children showed more interest and had more
knowledge of the outside world, but that their knowledge of China’s traitional
culture was less impressive, compared to more senior generations.
A global generation
Most of the respondents showed a strong interest in going abroad. Only a
fifth said they did not wish to travel outside China. One fifth said they would
travel abroad, but mainly for the purpose of study. A quarter said their main
interest would be sight-seeing. However, one third said the reason they'd like
to go abroad would be to communicate with foreigners and broaden their visions.
When asked, "which language do you consider more important, Chinese or
English?" two thirds answered that English was more important than their mother
tongue. "Of course English is more important, since it can help with
international communication," said Xia Ning, a Guangzhou student aged 14 to News
Weekly.
Many of the children had already been to other countries. Among them, 17 percent had
been to Europe, 9 percent had visited other Asian countries, 6 percent had traveled to
America, and 3 percent had visited Africa.
Chinese food is also losing out among children. When asked what they’d prefer
to eat if their parents took them out for dinner, slightly more selected steak,
KFC and McDonald's than Chinese food.
Choices are also expanding in terms of entertainment. More than one third of
the children said they preferred foreign songs to Chinese ones.
The children also had an impressive knowledge of famous brands. When asked
which brands impressed them most, a wide range of world-famous names were
offered in response, including Chanel, Panasonic and Marlboro.
How much traditional knowledge remains?
Asked to list the four greatest inventions in ancient China (paper, the
compass, gunpowder and the printing press), less than half knew all four, and
13 percent knew none of them.
Brush calligraphy is a kind of unique Chinese art. In ancient China, people
would be very proud if they could write good calligraphy. However, according to
the survey, 60 percent of the children had little knowledge of this tradition.
Accordingly, not everyone was familiar with "wenfangsibao", the four
necessary items to write traditional calligraphy, namely bi, mo, zhi, yan.
(writing brush, ink stick, paper and ink slab). Only 65 percent of the respondents knew
all four. Most of the rest knew none of them.
Another fear is the potential demise of Peking Opera, if attitudes among the
young are anything to go by. When asked "have you heard of Peking Opera, and do
you like it," 49 percent said "I have heard of it but I don’t like it;" 45 percent had not
even heard of it. Only 5 percent of the children said they liked it.
"It is awful," told Yeye, a Beijing boy born in 1994, to Beijing Today. "Those
lianpu (make-up designs) look beautiful, and following my father’s
suggestion I used to send some to my cousin who has emigrated to Canada. But the
rhythm of the music is truly unpleasant to hear, and I cannot make out what they
are singing and talking about at all.”
She believes that the problem lies with inadequate education and the lack of
proper methods for getting young people interested in their cultural heritage.
Another survey conducted at Zhejiang University would appear to support
her idea. Students were asked to choose which they would prefer from six kinds
of optional courses, including traditional culture, foreign languages,
modern culture and sports. About one-third of the students chose traditional culture,
making it easily the most popular.
When asked what they felt was wrong with education about traditional culture,
most students said there weren’t enough teachers. They also mentioned that
society did not require people to know that much about it.
"I asked my daughter to study calligraphy, even though she had
little interest in it. I realize I asked her to study it mainly because of my
vanity, hoping she would win awards in some competitions," said Zhao Yuanyuan, the mother
of an 11-year-old girl in Beijing, to Beijing Today. "Sometimes I feel confused
as well. Now that everyone uses computers, is it useless to be able to write
good calligraphy?"
"I think it must be a good thing to know a lot about traditional culture,"
said Zhou, Zhao's daughter. "But no one talked to me about it that much, no one
really told me how good or interesting it is, either my parents orachers. They
care more about examinations, you know. However, I really do not like
calligraphy. I don’t think I have a gift for it."
Ironically, in News Weekly's survey, 16 percent of the children said their favorite
singer is Jay Chou. But not many of them knew that Jay Chou has adopted a
number of Peking Opera tunes in his songs.
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