Me generation finally focuses on us

By Erik Nilsson (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-27 14:02

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Youngsters think nothing of spending their money in nightclubs. clubzone.cn

Most of their elders call China's balinghou (post-'80s generation) selfish, apathetic and materialistic.

Like many people her age, 19-year-old Cao Si from Hunan doesn't like the stereotype. Still, she admits: "It's kind of true."

Cao puts it this way: "If someone from my generation gets two apples, they will eat them. If someone from my mother's generation gets two apples, they will save them both to give to their children."

The point is, either way the balinghou end up with both apples - and believing they deserve them.

China's "Me Generation" was born after the 1979 adoption of the one-child policy and was hyperactively doted on, leading to the "little emperor" and "little princess" syndromes. They then came of age during the country's opening-up and economic miracle.

Such forces have thrust wedges between China's youth and their elders that have stretched the generation gap into a generation gulf.

"Our generation believes we should live easily in this world," Cao says. That means spending money on fun and luxuries - fashionable clothes, magazines, nights out - never dreamed of by their impoverished elders.

"If I earn 100 yuan ($14), maybe I'll save 40 and spend 60. If my mother earns 100 yuan, maybe she'll spend 40 and save 60."

Spendthrift consumption is all the easier for the younger generation since they haven't earned the cash, explains 22-year-old Guangzhou student Zhong Jinfeng.

"Many people born after the '80s and '90s don't have to go to work," he says. "They just spend their parents' money because they don't know how hard it is to make."

As 51-year-old Xu Yihe says: "This generation has been more protected by their parents and enjoyed more material comforts."

But China's 20-somethings are getting a harsh wake-up call as they're pushed from their coddling families into the real world, a transition 23-year-old news agency editor Zuo Yuanfeng calls "a hard journey".

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