Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07BEIJING721
2007-01-30 10:50:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Beijing
Cable title:  

THE TROUBLE WITH KIDS: 20-40 GENERATION GAP

Tags:  PGOV PREL KCUL SOCI CH 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO2309
OO RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHBJ #0721/01 0301050
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 301050Z JAN 07
FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4328
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIJING 000721 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/30/2032
TAGS: PGOV PREL KCUL SOCI CH
SUBJECT: THE TROUBLE WITH KIDS: 20-40 GENERATION GAP
EMERGES AMID CRITICISM OF CHINA'S YOUTH

REF: A. 06 BEIJING 18112

B. 05 BEIJING 17896

Classified By: Political Section Internal Unit Chief Susan A. Thornton.
Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

Summary
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIJING 000721

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/30/2032
TAGS: PGOV PREL KCUL SOCI CH
SUBJECT: THE TROUBLE WITH KIDS: 20-40 GENERATION GAP
EMERGES AMID CRITICISM OF CHINA'S YOUTH

REF: A. 06 BEIJING 18112

B. 05 BEIJING 17896

Classified By: Political Section Internal Unit Chief Susan A. Thornton.
Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

Summary
--------------


1. (C) It is fashionable among Chinese elites who
were born in the 1960s or before to criticize current
Chinese college students and recent graduates as self-
absorbed and materialistic. Scholars and journalists
have told us that in their view, a "20-40" generation
gap is emerging between young people who have only
experienced a prosperous, rising China (those in their
20s) and their elders who remember the Cultural
Revolution, the heady openness of the 1980s and the
1989 crackdown (those in their 40s). Many of our
contacts expressed concern that knee-jerk nationalism
and lack of civic awareness among the young and
acquisitive risk producing an unstable society down
the line. For their part, twentysomethings are aware
of the criticism and call it unjustified, claiming
that they are doing their best amid the complex
economic and social pressures of modern China.
Sociologists pointed out that the lack of political
activism among young people today, regardless of the
reasons, serves the interests of China's current
leadership, for whom stability remains a top priority.
End Summary.

A Dim View From the Lectern
--------------


2. (C) Academic contacts we spoke with said today's
university students compare unfavorably to those they
taught in the 1980s in terms of political awareness.
Xing Xiaoqun (protect) has been a teacher at China
Youth University for Political Science for close to
two decades. She said she has noticed a pronounced
difference between her present and past pupils,
observing that students in the 1980s were focused on
advancing and improving society. While that does not
mean they were all political activists, Xing
emphasized that there was a sense on campus that the
most worthwhile areas of study involved trying to
build a better country. Nowadays, young people are
concerned only with themselves, Xing charged. Her

students are obsessed with getting a good job, earning
money and buying things. "I find this very
disappointing," she lamented. Youth coming of age
today never had to experience hardship or political
tumult. They have only known a prosperous,
increasingly confident China, which is not necessarily
a bad thing -- but it can breed complacency, Xing
suggested. With a stake in the status quo, students
are less likely to press for changes, she said.


3. (C) Such disengagement from political affairs is
exactly what China's current leadership wants,
surmised Li Qiang, Dean of the Sociology Department at
Tsinghua who has taught for more than two decades. In

SIPDIS
his view, the 20-40 generation gap is very pronounced.
Like Xing, Li recalled that students in the 1980s were
very passionate about political issues, a byproduct of
and reaction to the Mao era, when everything was
politicized. Today's students do not necessarily
ignore politics, but there is little desire to embark
on a public-oriented career with a view to making a
difference in society. Echoing other scholars, Li
judged that there is no way a 1989-type movement could
happen now because students care primarily about
themselves and personal economic gain. This is
squarely in the interests of the current Government,
whose watchword is social stability, especially on
college campuses, he said.

Tiananmen: Still a Taboo
--------------


4. (C) One common trait among fortysomethings and
twentysomethings is that neither generation likes to
discuss the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. For the older
group "June 4 is too sad a topic," said Wu Jiaxiang,
an author in his 50s who served as an aide to Zhao
Ziyang and Hu Yaobang in the 1980s. For former
activists and others who supported the demonstrations,
memories of the movement's violent end are painful,
"especially if you or someone you knew was hurt or
wound up in jail," Wu remarked. While current

BEIJING 00000721 002 OF 003


students and recent graduates may have fuzzy memories
of the demonstrations, they do not obsess over 1989.
Students at top universities in particular constitute
China's elite and they have a stake in status quo.
They want a piece of China's humming economic action
and they recognize that being vocal about Tiananmen
(or turning it into a romantic cause celebre) could
jeopardize their ambitions, Wu said. In fact, recent
protests on college campuses in China have involved
economics, not politics. When students rampaged in
Jiangxi and Henan provinces last year (ref A),they
were upset about how the diminished status of their
diplomas might affect employment prospects.

No Campus Is an Island
--------------


5. (C) That universities are no longer insulated from
the pressures of the real world contributes to the
shift in student character, our contacts said.
Outside influences encroach on academia more than ever
now, said Wang Feng (protect),a journalist at the
influential bi-weekly Caijing magazine. At 30, Wang
said he perceives the 20-40 generation gap and feels
more similar to the older types. Today's students
worry about post-graduate employment to the extent
that even by sophomore year they are angling for
internships at businesses. Wang, who is in charge of
Caijing's internship program, said he has mixed
feelings about the current class of young people
apprenticing at the magazine. They are sophisticated
and have more exposure to the outside world,
particularly via the Internet. They are whip smart
when it comes to economics and business. But what
troubles Wang is lack of interest in or understanding
of basic journalistic ethics, politics or "human
compassion," he said. In fact, most interns are not
interested in media careers. Rather, they want to
parlay their experience at prestigious Caijing into a
job at a consultancy or other business. This
generation will contribute mightily to China's
economic progress, Wang predicted. But in terms of
making China a healthier, more equitable society, "I
have my worries," he said.

Nationalism May Be Growing
--------------


6. (C) Chinese born in the 1960s and after are more
engaged with and fascinated by the world beyond China
than any of their predecessors were. But our contacts
said the younger set takes more unbridled pride in
China's rising global status. College students and
young professionals formed the backbone of the anti-
Japan protests that unfolded across China in April
2005 (ref B). Our reading from sociologists is that
twentysomethings came of age during a time when China
has known only stability and prosperity and are loath
to see their country play second fiddle to any other
nation. Added to the equation is that the newly
commercialized media indirectly stokes nationalism by
playing up China's successes while giving pride of
place to bad news for the United States and Japan.
Nonetheless, scholars were not entirely downbeat,
noting that the various influences on young people's
lives, including access to online information and
ideas, tend to keep extremist passions in perspective.

"Who Needs Two Cell Phones?"
--------------


7. (C) While pleased by China's success,
fortysomethings still sense a connection to the
troubled recent past, said Li Tao (protect),a
professor at Tsinghua University's School of
Journalism and Communication. Born in 1967, Li said
he feels more in common with people born in the 1950s
than with those whose birthdates are in the 1980s. He
and his forebears were in primary school at the tail
end of the Cultural Revolution. They remember Mao.
They remember China when it was a very poor and
insular place. "My parents, brothers and sisters and
I led a very simple life," Li recalled. In addition,
Li grew up prior to the one-child policy, so he and
many of his friends have brothers and sisters, unlike
young people today. In his view, this has made his
generation more capable of cooperation and hashing out
differences. He and his contemporaries are also more
empathetic about the plight of others.


8. (C) Another pronounced difference, Li continued,

BEIJING 00000721 003 OF 003


is that he and other fortysomethings have simple taste
in entertainment. They like to go home after work,
open a beer, maybe get together with friends and talk
or watch a movie. When they talk, they chat about
goings on in the world or in the nation, including
politically. The twentysomethings Li has spent time
with have little interest in such issues. They like
talking about jobs, cars, the newest cell phones.
"Some of my younger sister's friends own two cell
phones," said Citizen Magazine journalist He Jiangtao,
36, who complained bitterly to poloff about what he
views as the wasteful greediness of the younger
generation. "Who needs two cell phones?"

The Modern Social Pressure Cooker
--------------


9. (C) Despite such complaints, some contacts cast
the generational differences in a relatively positive
light. Current college students and recent graduates
do not have the luxury of spending time pondering
political issues, said Wu Yin (protect),the chief
research supervisor at the Horizon public opinion
firm. Unlike their predecessors, newly minted
graduates do not receive assigned jobs from the
government after graduation, introducing a new level
of uncertainty into the lives of China's young people.
As such, youths naturally have to focus on themselves,
on building their resumes, on making good decisions
about their futures, Wu argued. Some people call this
selfishness or lack of awareness about the society
that surrounds them. In fact, it is a natural
consequence of modern challenges and it will produce
young people who are more comforable making tough
choices, Wu said. Moreove, Wu questioned the
stereotype of the disengaged youth. According to his
research, he said people in their early 20s place high
importance on developing rule of law and on improving
the lot of society's have-nots.

People Try to Put Us Down ...
--------------


10. (C) Chen Ping, who graduated from Beijing
University in 2006, has heard the criticisms and
rejects them. He told poloff he made a point of being
active in the civic life of his school. During his
time at the university, Chen became head of the
student international relations club and also
volunteered for a non-profit organization dedicated to
helping the blind in poor, rural Shanxi province. But
this sense of civic awareness has not convinced him of
the value of public service in the official sense.
Going against the wishes of his parents, who are in
their early 50s, Chen passed over an offer to join the
Foreign Ministry (which would have paid RMB 2,000 per
month, or USD 250) in favor of working for a South
Korean telecommunications firm, which offered USD
2,000 per month.

... And Maybe They're Right?
--------------


11. (C) Shi Rong, currently a Beijing University
senior and English major, differed in her view. Shi
herself cares about politics and follows social
developments in China. She and her friends e-mail
foreign news stories to each other about incidents of
unrest in China, occasionally referring to themselves
as "counter-revolutionary bastards" when disseminating
particularly sensitive material within their group via
e-mail. Nonetheless, Shi believes she and her circle
are in the minority and that older people's criticism
of her generation has some truth to it. "I believe my
generation is not at all engaged in politics. People
only care about themselves," she said. Shi is
currently applying to graduate schools in the United
States.
RANDT