The democracy movement in 1989 led by students from Peking and Tsinghua University demonstrated their demand for freedom. Indeed, Chinese youth during this period were more involved in the politics since they cared about the nation and many of them would like to find an “iron rice bowl” job in China. The “iron rice bowl” is a Chinese idiom which referred to the now abolished system of guaranteed lifetime employment (BBC News, 2010). As a result, the Tiananmen Square Protest certainly affected the society infrastructure in China.Compared to the “youth” during the Tiananmen Square incident, youth who were born after the Tiananmen Square event, also known as the “post 1980s” kids or the “Tiananmen-plus-20” generation (FlorCruz and Chang, 2009), have little knowledge about the event. This is due to the internet censorship restrictions and also due to the fact that the subject has been concealed from the textbooks, the majority of teenagers are not able to receive “accurate” information about the event. Moreover, these youth whose parents and grandparents actually experienced the incident have been warning their children to stay away from politics since “they consider politics as the dirtiest kind of business” (Rosen, 2004). Furthermore, after China opens up its market to foreign investors to invest in the country, the value of the youth in China has changed, and their value is shifting from nationalism to individualism. Thus, foreign companies such as fashion, sports activities, and electronic products have gradually “polluted” the Chinese tradition. For instance, in basketball courts across China, “each festooned with Nike swooshes, is Kobe Bryant or LeBron James and Allen Iverson. However, the missing is the jersey of Yao Ming, the Houston Rockets center who is the very essence of Chinese basketball, perhaps the country’s most precious athletic commodity” (Carpenter, 2008). This phenomenon indicates that the teenagers in China are “contaminated” by the western culture, which causes them to value the nationalism less than the older generation.
Indeed, a survey conducted by the Communist Youth League (CYL) and National Student Federation about the youth aspiration, the first choice was to become billionaire, second was the boss of a multination corporation, and the third was governor (Rosen, 2004). This result shows that the current young generation is more interested in finding jobs that will make them wealthy rather than finding an “iron rice bowl.” Therefore, “money has become the first priority in job hunting in an increasingly competitive job market, under which the individual is often dependent on his/her own initiatives” (Rosen, 2004).
In conclusion, after the Tiananmen Square Protest, the attitudes towards the politics involvement and values in life between the youth during the incident and the current Chinese youth are growing apart. Nowadays, “youth are realistic and more pragmatic while Youth in the 1980s were full of fears and a conflict of values that caused turmoil inside and outside of campus” (Rosen, 2004). Youth in China today has gradually distanced themselves from politics since many youth are not interested (global and mail), and they believe that their life would be better without the politics involvement since China is having an ongoing economic reform and the Chinese citizens could benefit from the rapidly growing economy as long as they do not rebel against the government or cause any disturbance. “Westerners may view this as the inevitable result of an authoritarian regime using fear to kill political expression” (Rosen, 2004). However, is it a good thing for the Chinese people to become unconcerned about the politics? Would this trend lead to a worse corruption situation and wealth disparity in China?
Sources for this section:
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) News. “Iron Rice Bowl.” Key People and Events. Retrieved June 5, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/china_politics/key_people_events/html/4.stm
Carpenter, Les. “Western Influence: Young Chinese Fans Favor Foreign Icons Over Homeland Heroes.” The Washington Post, August 06, 2008. Retrieved June 4, 2010 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/05/AR2008080503046.html
FlorCruz, Jaime and Chang, Emily. “China's youth post-Tiananmen: Apathy a fact or front?” CNN News, June 04, 2009. Retrieved June 5, 2010 from
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/06/03/china.post.tiananmen.generation/index.html
Rosen, Stanley. (2004). “The State of Youth/Youth and the State in Early 21st-Century China: Thee Triumph of the Urban Rich?” New York, Routledge Curzon. (accessed June 5, 2010)
