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'Silver-spooners' smart, hopeful
Source: Xinhua |
June 3, 2009, Wednesday
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BORN in 1990, Bi Jia has a career plan different from that of most of her classmates, who dream of becoming career diplomats after graduation from the elite China Foreign Affairs University.
"I want to go to a multinational after graduation, where my competitive mind and adaptability would enable me to get chances," said the 19-year-old college student, a native of Anhui Province.
Bi grew up with access to Hollywood movies and pop music, wears Spanish fashion brand Zara and a Swiss-made Swatch. She said her generation could choose to live pretty much the same lifestyle as their American counterparts.
By the time Bi was born, China's decade-long fast economic growth since its 1978 reform and opening up made hers a generation "born with a silver spoon in their mouth." They were born in an information age, fed on material abundance, and equipped with sophisticated digital apparatus.
Zhang Jianguo, editor-in-chief of a popular magazine, the China Campus, said today's college students have concerns different from those of 20 years ago. "College students paid more attention to the ideological sphere and political system 20 years ago, but today's students start to address human rights, ecological protection and the welfare of the disadvantaged," he said.
Bi Jia said she and her friends believe China needs improvement and can learn from the Americans. "There are also areas for the United States to make improvement and learn from China. No country is perfect," she said.
Yu Kejie, a professor of ideological and modern history studies at CFAU, said today's Chinese college students have an "active mind" and "are politically sensitive."
There's another side of the coin, of course. Type three Chinese characters - 90 hou (Post-90s) - in search engines, and you find links to pictures showing explicit sexual images of young people and information about their so-called easygoing attitude towards sex.
"They are less disciplined than their predecessors," professor Yu said. "But they have a flexible mind and are not pedantic about rules and formalities."
Huang Zhao, a interpretation postgraduate at Beijing Foreign Studies University said, "We do not have a starving stomach, but we have a mind under a lot of pressure; we live in rented cramped rooms, jammed into crowded buses, but we are optimistic and confident about life."
"I want to go to a multinational after graduation, where my competitive mind and adaptability would enable me to get chances," said the 19-year-old college student, a native of Anhui Province.
Bi grew up with access to Hollywood movies and pop music, wears Spanish fashion brand Zara and a Swiss-made Swatch. She said her generation could choose to live pretty much the same lifestyle as their American counterparts.
By the time Bi was born, China's decade-long fast economic growth since its 1978 reform and opening up made hers a generation "born with a silver spoon in their mouth." They were born in an information age, fed on material abundance, and equipped with sophisticated digital apparatus.
Zhang Jianguo, editor-in-chief of a popular magazine, the China Campus, said today's college students have concerns different from those of 20 years ago. "College students paid more attention to the ideological sphere and political system 20 years ago, but today's students start to address human rights, ecological protection and the welfare of the disadvantaged," he said.
Bi Jia said she and her friends believe China needs improvement and can learn from the Americans. "There are also areas for the United States to make improvement and learn from China. No country is perfect," she said.
Yu Kejie, a professor of ideological and modern history studies at CFAU, said today's Chinese college students have an "active mind" and "are politically sensitive."
There's another side of the coin, of course. Type three Chinese characters - 90 hou (Post-90s) - in search engines, and you find links to pictures showing explicit sexual images of young people and information about their so-called easygoing attitude towards sex.
"They are less disciplined than their predecessors," professor Yu said. "But they have a flexible mind and are not pedantic about rules and formalities."
Huang Zhao, a interpretation postgraduate at Beijing Foreign Studies University said, "We do not have a starving stomach, but we have a mind under a lot of pressure; we live in rented cramped rooms, jammed into crowded buses, but we are optimistic and confident about life."
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