China News: Me Generation | China Digital Times (CDT)

China news tagged with: me generation (5)

RSS feed for this topic

Related tags

Flaws in China’s Digital Dissidents

Alice Liu writes her opinion for Asia Times:

Despite having a reputation in the West as trailblazing citizen journalists, many of China’s young bloggers are seen by Chinese as egocentric, showy and self-serving. Most come from the “me generation”, a derisive term for youths born after the nation began its strictly enforced one-child policy in 1979.

[...]Many bloggers from the “me generation” are just like Zola. They may appear rebellious, and committed to exposing scandals, but they do this mainly for self-satisfaction or fame. The majority of these bloggers are not politically adventurous, and most, like Zola, won’t criticize the communist authorities. In short, they are apolitical.

[...] A new craze among young Chinese bloggers is T-Shirts with “democracy” written across the top in bold red and white letters, but it is only for fun. These digital boys and girls are not really serious about their pursuit of so-called “democracy” in China. Otherwise, they might have thought of some better way of doing it. Some, probably from the slightly older generation, stay low key on the Internet, so it is meaningful when they do stand up and say something. But none of the “me generation” has experienced any of the recent traumas in Chinese history, so perhaps it is difficult for them to understand the feelings of people who have gone through those tragic events.
» Read more
- June 18, 2009 12:54 PM
All Eyes Inward

Newsweek takes a look at the new breed of Chinese artist, who came of age as part of the so-called “Me generation”:

Until recently, the way Chinese artists got famous was to talk politics. The generation that grew up during the Cultural Revolution and the difficult years that followed was highly politicized and gained global recognition for its tongue-in-cheek images of Mao Zedong and Tiananmen Square, often rendered in eye-popping color. Wang Guangyi’s kitschy communist-style propaganda posters incorporated iconic consumer logos, such as Coca-Cola and Porsche, and Yue Minjun mocked the fast-changing world with his paintings of large-mouthed men grinning relentlessly.

Though still hot, those new-wave artists are giving way to a very different group: the “me-first” generation, whose members talk about each other and themselves. Born in the 1980s under China’s one-child policy, they were still children during Tiananmen and are much less interested in politics and far more concerned with individuality. Unlike their elders, who use art to criticize the growing commercialism and inequality of post-Mao China, the younger generation is a product of that rapid economic transformation. Their parents doted on them. They’ve been exposed to a broader range of media, including the Internet, videogames, Japanese manga and Korean soap operas. Coffee rather than tea drinkers, they are as comfortable listening to American rock and hip-hop as to Cantonese pop.

Their work reflects their experience, informed by global fashion, technology and media. What they lack in edginess they make up for in innovation and an openness to experimentation with new media, like video and electronic art.
» Read more
- May 17, 2009 1:34 PM
China’s Angry Youth Vent Their Feelings

From the Financial Times:

Images of angry Chinese students beating up Korean protesters in Seoul and attacking Carrefour supermarkets at home may well have been the last thing Bo Yang, the controversial author of The Ugly Chinaman, saw before he died on Tuesday in Taiwan at the age of 88.

Mr Bo, renowned for his criticism of what he dubbed Chinese cultural tendencies towards authoritarianism, xenophobia and intolerance, spent nine years in prison in Taiwan . But he saved his most scathing criticism for the Chinese Communist party, which he accused of drawing out the worst characteristics of the Chinese people.
» Read more
- May 2, 2008 10:26 AM
Video: There Is No Address in Heaven (天堂地址不详) – Tudou.com

Before the 70th Anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre , a group of university students born in Nanjing produced a documentary to memorialize this part of history. Their shooting angles are unsophisticated, but they sincerely express their love for Nanjing city. The so-called “Me generation” believes they have a responsiblity toward Nanjing and China’s bright future.

From Tudou.com:

天堂地址不详

» Read more
- December 14, 2007 8:38 AM
Breaking Up Not Hard To Do For China’s “Me” Generation – Reuters

From Reuters via yahoo.com:

Ten months after they tied the knot, Li Lei and Wang Yang, both 20-something Chinese professionals, decided it was time to break up so they could spend more time with their lovers. They signed on the dotted line on their divorce paper less than 20 minutes after answering “no” to a few key questions — “Do you have kids?” and “Any disputes on property?”

China’s phenomenal economic growth has created a generation of “emperors” and “empresses”, the now-adult children of China’s one-child policy, who often put their needs before anything and anyone else. Experts say many of this generation are unable to sustain relationships, a result of being spoilt only children, doted on by parents and grandparents who catered to their every whim. [Full Text]

- Read more about China’s “Me” Generation, via Time Magazine.
» Read more
- November 28, 2007 10:50 AM