Many young adults in China feel cut off from opportunity By McClatchy Foreign Staff, adapted by Newsela staff on 07.09.13 Word Count 1,018 Level 1070L Members of China's post-80s generation live in cramped apartments on the outskirts of Shanghai where they study for the graduate entrance exam with the hope that more education will give them better opportunities. Lara Farrar/MCT SHANGHAI — For two days, Rocky had been playing video games in the tiny apartment he shares with three other men in Shanghai, a city of 23 million. He left only once, to buy food. The games “help me relax,” he said. “It helps me escape. I feel so tired.” In June, the 32-year-old quit his $400-a-month job as a salesman with a traditional Chinese medicine company. Rocky has had nearly a dozen jobs since he graduated from college a decade ago. His mother, who lived in a poor village in Shandong, a province a few hours north of Shanghai by train, died in May. “She worked so hard to try to give me everything, and I could never do anything for her,” said Rocky, who requested that only his English name be used because he’s embarrassed by his poverty. “I am such a loser. There is such a huge gap between my reality and my dreams.” Rocky is part of a generation in China known as the post-’80s. Born in the 1980s, they’ve seen rapid change as China moved from a communist system to a market-oriented economy. Under the This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. old system, most property was owned by the state. And while most Chinese people were poor, they all had a similar quality of life. The Post-80s Generation After China adopted the new market-based system that allows for private ownership of businesses, materialism exploded and a new kind of inequality has emerged. Because China has long restricted families to having just one child to limit population growth, many of the post-'80s lack siblings. They’re the first generation to grow up with the Internet, and in turn, have had more access to information — but are perhaps more subject to censorship. They’ve also had more access to college and universities. However, after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, where pro-democracy demonstrations were crushed, the government changed the school curriculum to support the government's agenda. Chinese society has long been worried about the post-’80s and what will become of them. They’ve been called spoiled, irresponsible, materialistic, lazy and confused. “They are described as China’s lost generation,” said Minna Jia, who researched the age group while studying for a PhD at the University of Southern California. “People say this generation only cares about money, about themselves.” That sentiment was given an official voice in May, when the People’s Daily published an editorial that had little good to say about the country’s young adults. The newspaper is seen as the mouthpiece of the Communist Party. “Why has a generation that should be full of vigor and vitality become lethargic,” the newspaper asked. While it acknowledged that young people face overwhelming pressures, such as finding jobs, buying homes and taking care of their parents, it also blamed them for not having direction in their lives. Chinese in their 20s and 30s were outraged. The reason they are stuck in limbo is not their own fault, they complained. They blame programs started by the communist party to control China's society and economy, such as the one-child policy. Impossible To Buy A Home “We have four elderly people to take care of and one child to raise. Our children have no access to safe milk or fair education. High real estate prices make us homeless,” said one comment on Sina Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter. “We want to look up into the starry sky, but who has clouded it?” The high real estate prices have made it impossible to buy, or even rent, a home. As a result, many 20- and 30-somethings are living together in cramped apartments in big cities. In Beijing, thousands of unemployed college graduates, mostly from the post-’80s generation, live in urban slums known as “ant villages.” Owning a home is practically a required step before getting married, especially for men. Yet skyrocketing prices make it hard to buy apartments in a metropolis such as Beijing and Shanghai, so many young people are postponing matrimony. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. Meanwhile, the surge of educated young people entering the labor market has made competition for jobs fierce and has pushed down salaries, which often are barely enough to cover basic necessities. As only children, the post-’80s generation also must shoulder the burden of caring for aging parents and grandparents, not just their own, but also their spouses’. Widespread nepotism has meant that those in their generation whose families have powerful connections and wealth are get offered the best opportunities. The food that the post-’80s eat is unsafe, and the environment they live in is polluted, many say. Feeling Dispirited “If I want to buy a house, I can’t eat or drink for 30 years,” wrote Zuoyeben, a popular social critic. “I belong to the post-’80s generation. How is it possible for me not to be dispirited? It’s enough … accomplishment that I’m somehow still alive!” Interviews with 20-somethings confirm their unhappiness. Xia Tianyi, 25, works at a university in Shanghai. “Our childhood was very pure and simple,” Xia said. “When we grow up, the changes that took place happened overnight. Everybody feels so anxious and doesn’t know what to do. We can’t escape an environment where everyone talks about money.” Wang Wei, 27, who works for a local government in Nantong, a coastal city near Shanghai, had a similar downcast view. “I don’t think the situation will get better,” she said. At night, she works a shift at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. She said she couldn’t get a promotion in her government work because “it is very clear that those who get promotions all have family connections. Opportunities are not really fair for capable people. All we can do is accept the way things are,” she said. Despite the widespread unhappiness, few expect the post-’80s to demand political change. “They very much support the government in many ways,” said Liu Fengshu, the author of a book on China's youth and modern society. “I think people will protest if the situation really goes beyond their tolerance level, but it is very hard now to say how much young people can bear. They are very nationalistic.” This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. Quiz 1 Select the paragraph from the article that contains a phrase that means "a large difference between what someone has and what they want." 2 Read the sentence from the article: As China has adopted the new market-based system that allows for private ownership of businesses, materialism has exploded and a new kind of inequality has emerged. What is the BEST meaning of the word 'materialism' as mentioned in the sentence above? 3 (A) generosity (B) greediness (C) prejudice (D) unawareness Read the sentence from the article: They're the first generation to grow up with the Internet, and in turn, have had more access to information - but are perhaps more subject to censorship. What does the word 'censorship' mean as mentioned in the sentence above? 4 (A) independence (B) poverty (C) restriction (D) violence Read the sentence from the article: "We want to look up into the starry sky, but who has clouded it?" What type of figurative language is this phrase? (A) imagery (B) metaphor (C) personification (D) simile This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.
