Eric's Beijing Diary

This morning on Dialogue Yang Rui was talking with Hong Huang, former publisher of Seventeen Magazine, China, about what young people in China consider "cool." Yang Rui said, "The concept of 'cool' comes from abroad...do you think Chinese young people have developed a correct understanding of 'cool?'"

Hong Huang mentioned a survey that they had taken. She made a couple of interesting points. She said that rebellion itself was not necessarily considered "cool." In other words, Chinese young people do not make rebellion a cause. She also said that Chinese young people tend to view their parents with a great deal of respect, even though they are careful to draw a distinction. This distinction is exemplified by a comment Yang Rui's son made to him: "Dad, you are not my best friend."

I am certainly not an expert, but I can make some observations based on the young people I have worked with over the past semester. First of all, this is the first generation of the "one child" family. So these kids have almost all grown up as the only child in their respective families. Much concern has been expressed about the eventual effects of China's one child policy. What will China be like when there are no aunts, no uncles and no cousins? But since this is the first generation, most of these young people have aunts and uncles and cousins, even though most of them do not have brothers or sisters. So they are getting the "best of both worlds" so to speak.

I should mention, perhaps, that the young people I have been working with are by no means a random sample of the population. Being a "top 15 university," Beihang does not admit any freshmen who score below the 98th percentile on the National College Entrance Exam. But I still believe that they are, at least to a reasonable extent, representative of what Chinese young people today are like, and how they view their world.

Several observations: First of all, the freshmen I have worked with are, as a whole, very casual dressers. Part of this may be economic. The fact that they are very bright and able to do well on exams does not mean that their families have lots of money. The news that one of their children has achieved a high score on the National Entrance Exam is certainly a blessing, but it can also present an enormous challenge to families that are not wealthy, especially if they come from a part of China where the kinds of tuition fees that are taken for granted in Beijing would be considered a sizeable amount of money.

But I don't think it's just economics. These kids just are not picky about wearing the latest fashions. They dress nice, but usually quite casually. Of course there are variations. Some kids seem to be wearing something new every time I see them. But they are the exception. Another thing I have noticed is in line with what Hong Huang said. Most of these young people really respect their parents:

"Have you ever had a disagreement with your parents?"

"Yes, but my parents explained to me why I was wrong."

Part of this comes, I'm sure, from the fact that the nineteen-year-olds I have worked with are, in most cases, the only child. But a certain amount of it comes, I think, from the fact (and this is the third observation) that a surprising number of these young people have been raised by their grandparents for a significant part of their youth. For some of them, it was primarily during the years before they entered school. But one young lady told me that she lived with her grandparents until she came to the University. Some of them saw their parents in the evening. Many of them just saw them on weekends. The young lady I mentioned said that she saw them during Spring Festival (Chinese New Year). There is a lot of discussion in China about the number of children who are being raised by their grandparents. While I think this arrangement is vastly superior to the tremendous proliferation of day care centers in the United States, it does leave one with some questions. One could easily imagine that, for some of these young people, the grandparents become the parents. And these "parents" are strongly motivated to give these children everything their hearts desire. Is this a good thing? What kind of China will come from this unique family constellation? Only time will tell.

Labels: Youth