Young faces have dominated the nightly news on television during the past weeks, seen in radical protest around Central. These culminated in the boisterous gathering outside the Legislative Council Chamber on January 8 that attempted to influence the funding allocation for construction of an express rail link from Hong Kong to Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

Incidentally, in a private year-end celebration dinner held just this past weekend, guests were entertained with a nostalgic screening of a classic movie Rebel Without a Cause. It was an American film made in 1955 that tells the story of a rebellious teenager played by James Dean, who comes to a new town, meets a girl, disobeys his parents, and defies the local high school bullies. It was an attempt to portray the moral decay of American youth, critique parental styles and family pressures, and exploit the differences between generations.

The film has been criticized for siding sympathetically with rebellious, restless, misunderstood and displaced middle-class youth, searching for meaning in life and dealing with a society which "doesn't understand".

The film had its opening on October 27, 1955, almost one month after James Dean's fatal car crash.

The days of youth are a confusing time for anyone. I was young once, and I started to act differently, think differently, and realize that I was growing up and there was nothing I or anybody could do about it. And in the midst of all these perplexities and bewilderments, I had to figure out the best I could what I wanted to do with my life. Should I try to become an adult and come to terms with realities and align my yearning with expectations in line with those of family and society, or should I enjoy what little time I have left and cut loose and be "wild".

Restless youngsters may feel hopeless and helpless when they doubt their ability to cope because of insecurity concerning the present and the failings of their parents and their communities. Such internal anger is always waiting to explode and seeks the path of least resistance to come to a point of overt manifestation.

Youthful defiance is frequently highly charged, and easily finds satisfaction outside the traditional systems, misunderstood by their elders, misunderstanding and mistrusting social mores.

Such alienation, pressurized anxiety, and frustration, which bear unmistakable immediate and timeless qualities, when sparkled with a political issue of any significance, will explode into a form of social rebellion, which could be violent and yet romantic, pointless and yet focused, languishing and yet steadfast.

Rebel Without a Cause is a movie that to this day is a perfect example of how each generation is as rebellious as the one before it.

It serves as a constant and artistic reminder that we, young and old, must realize that perhaps responsibility for our lives rests with us and us alone.

The author is former secretary for home affairs of the Hong Kong SAR

(HK Edition 01/13/2010 page1)