BEIJING (dpa) – China’s free-market revolution is releasing its children. Teachers complain that students today are far more likely to choose “Notting Hill” as an essay subject rather than interesting themselves in classical Chinese literature.
Communist heroes are also a thing of the past: Ask the students who their idols are, and you will hear stories about Coco Chanel, Hillary Clinton or the former Chrysler boss Lee Iacocca.Tang Haisong, the founder of the Chinese Internet firm etang.com has christened the 18- to 35-year-old age group “Generation Yellow” as opposed to the “Red Generation” of their parents. Tang, 31, sees in the better-earning Generation Yellow a potential market and thus aims to sell the youngsters the lifestyle they lack and the products that go with it.Tang is every bit a part of the new generation. After studying at Harvard University and journeys through Europe, the young man returned to China last summer and founded an Internet firm. Today the company employs 150 people in three cities and continues to attract millions in new investments.One potential customer is Liu Hailiang, 22. At night, the student of computer science chats over the Internet with friends with Germany, Taiwan, Japan and Singapore, and often buys things over the web. But he has yet to make his fortune. With a cellular phone pinned to his ear, Liu dreams of a managerial career in computers.“In the future I want to earn as much money as possible. I want to buy a house, a car, and to be able to provide for a family, children, my parents and my wife’s parents.” Family duties in China reflect Confucian values.But responsibility can only increase with time in this country, as his generation will have to provide for an ageing society. Under the strict one-child policy, so-called 4-2-1 families are being created in which the four grandparents and one set of parents produce one child. Projections suggest that in 2025, one in five Chinese will be over 60.Liu Hailiang beams with confidence: “My life will become better. My parents suffered too much through the Cultural Revolution and successive new political campaigns. But these days your own hard work is what counts. Before, everything was power; today, if you’ve got money, you can do anything.”But however individual today’s students may be, not all of them wants a career. Chen Kun, 20, for example, is also studying computer sciences but would prefer to fulfil herself by doing a number of job – teacher, computer programmer, housewife, live in the country for a year, and travel the world. “I want to gain experience.” She admires “extraordinary women.”Liu Cancan, reading political sciences, is also modest about her expectations. Liu, 20, wants “a job which I like.” She is looking for an easy-going, happy family atmosphere. “If it pays enough, that’s alright. Then it’s easy.”Despite all talk about an ideological vacuum or the outlawed mystical Falun Gong sect, the students are not attracted by religion per se. “It’s difficult for us to understand the need for religion in other countries,” says Chen Kun. “We didn’t grow up with these ideas.”Public welfare and patriotism have still survived from the old, communist ideology. For Yang Guang, a 22-year-old political-science student, everyone contributes something to society. The most important thing about people is their “personal conscience”. Yang is proud of his country which he sees in competition with other cultures. If he could change the world he would want everyone to speak Chinese.More than a decade from the bloodily-crushed student demonstrations of 1989, today’s disillusioned scholars have largely turned their backs on politics. “Politics has its own rules in China,” says one student. “I am not interested in these rules as I can’t change them.”But what would he change if he could? “I would bring true democracy and freedom to China,” says the student who does not find it inconsistent that he belongs to the Communist Party. Party membership in China is still as important for a successful career, and despite progress in other areas, is as important as “guanxi”, the old Chinese network of relationships.“The job market is not really a free market,” says Professor Shi Xiuyin of the Academy for Social Sciences. “Anyone who has contacts in a government agency or relations in a business finds it easy to find a job.” The lack of such references can lead to distrust from potential employers.“It is an open secret,” says Prof Shi, “but when a male and a female graduate, with exactly the same qualifications, compete for a job, the man will be taken on.”Students of computer sciences, telecommunications or the economy find it easiest to get jobs. “The demand exceeds the supply,” says Shi. “The only thing is that young people are not content to stick at it.” They want to change jobs so as not to stay too long on their quest for big money. Many of them were easily disappointed.Liu Hailiang mentions money again and again, a broad smile spreading across his face whenever the word comes up. Although he sees it as the key to the future, he is also aware of what is required to get it. “The most important thing is hard work,” says Liu, 22. “Whatever you want to do in this world, you must work hard. Then the sky’s the limit.”
