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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