{"id":145705,"date":"2012-11-01T16:57:45","date_gmt":"2012-11-01T23:57:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=145705"},"modified":"2012-11-01T17:01:19","modified_gmt":"2012-11-02T00:01:19","slug":"escaping-the-rat-race-chinas-emerging-counter-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2012\/11\/escaping-the-rat-race-chinas-emerging-counter-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Escaping the Rat Race: An Emerging Counter-Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the rise of consumerism in China<\/a> continues to attract attention, Monica Tan turns to the backlash against it<\/strong><\/a>. From Tea Leaf Nation:<\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s happened all over the world, and it\u2019s happening in China too. As the country\u2019s middle class swells in number\u2013and its people discover the pleasures and disappointments of a life spent pursuing material comfort\u2013there comes the emergence of a distinct counter-culture. In Chinese, they are the wenyi qingnian (\u6587\u827a\u9752\u5e74), or wenqing for short, literally meaning \u201ccultured youth.\u201d It\u2019s China\u2019s closest equivalent to the alternatively beloved and reviled English word \u201chipster.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u2026] Behind these Chinese counter-cultures lies a hard reality. A recently released Pew Global Attitudes Survey showed that 81% of those polled in China agreed with the following statement: \u201cThe rich just get richer while the poor get poorer.\u201d And as Foreign Policy reported last month, the country\u2019s gender imbalance\u2014120 boys for every 100 girls\u2014has put serious pressure on the nation\u2019s bachelors. Those hunting for a bride have come to understand that they should come calling only when armed with an apartment. This, even though \u201cthe average property in a top-tier Chinese city now costs between 15 and 20 times the average annual salary.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the rise of consumerism in China continues to attract attention, Monica Tan turns to the backlash against it. From Tea Leaf Nation: It\u2019s happened all over the world, and it\u2019s happening in China too. As the country\u2019s middle class swells in number\u2013and its people discover the pleasures and disappointments of a life spent pursuing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":962,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20,2,14744,14745,14746,5],"tags":[621,170,14863,695,1444],"class_list":["post-145705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-economy","category-level-2-article","category-level-3-article","category-level-4-article","category-society","tag-consumerism","tag-gender-imbalance","tag-property-prices","tag-wealth-gap","tag-youth-culture","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nEscaping the Rat Race: An Emerging Counter-Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2012\/11\/escaping-the-rat-race-chinas-emerging-counter-culture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Escaping the Rat Race: An Emerging Counter-Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While the rise of consumerism in China continues to attract attention, Monica Tan turns to the backlash against it. From Tea Leaf Nation: It\u2019s happened all over the world, and it\u2019s happening in China too. As the country\u2019s middle class swells in number\u2013and its people discover the pleasures and disappointments of a life spent pursuing […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2012\/11\/escaping-the-rat-race-chinas-emerging-counter-culture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"China Digital Times (CDT)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-11-01T23:57:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-11-02T00:01:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"186\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"177\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Samuel Wade\" \/>\n<meta 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