China's 80's Generation Highlights the Way Forward

USA - English

• USA - English

SHENZHEN, China, Sept. 6 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- China's 80's generation, compared to their mothers and fathers, have a higher education, are tech-savvy, more optimistic, independent thinking and express their own ideas. Am-media has long shown interest in China's rapid development. A YouTube video, on which Am-media's well-known critic, Barnes, recently commented, exemplifies the up-and-coming nature of this next generation in China. Barnes commented that the video shows how China's 80's generation has become a major force in Chinese society, being more highly aggressive and creative than their parents.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100906/CNM001 )

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100906/CNM001 )

The video, featuring China's "promotion" girl on YouTube has recently attracted wide attention. It records and captures a series of interactions that occurred in the coastal city of Shenzhen, China. Not only does the video highlight China's new generation, it also points to a shift in China's economic model.

The video starts out with a Chinese businessman and two westerners watching the playing of the classical Chinese musical instrument, the erhu, by a musician in a restaurant, when a young woman enters the restaurant to promote a type of drink, now popular in China's high-end restaurants. The Chinese businessman takes out RMB100 (approx. US$15) from his pocket and says to the young woman that if she downs an alcoholic drink, he will give her the hundred yuan note and buy the drinks that she is selling. After a momentary hesitation, the girl consumes the alcoholic beverage and completes the sale of her products but refuses to accept the money proffered by the businessman. Then, when the two westerners ask the name of the song being played on the erhu, the young woman takes the opportunity to use her knowledge of English to explain the background of this form of traditional Chinese music. The astute handling of the situation on the part of the young woman draws the attention of the Chinese businessman, who, after engaging her in a few minutes of conversation, offers her a job at his company.

Posts to the page containing the YouTube video have some people praising the young woman as a wonderful example of Chinese traditions in her manner of speaking and her handling of the situation, while others just said she is prototypical of China's 80's generation. According to the conversation heard on the video, the girl is a college graduate who started working in the city not long ago. She uses the money she earns to cover her living expenses and her tuition fees and sends whatever is left over to her parents every month.

Members of the 80's generation have moved from rural areas to large cities, with the hopes of becoming a member of the urban middle class. However, they are perplexed and challenged by the high prices for housing in the city they have migrated to. They may be willing to take on a very ordinary job to gain a foothold in their newfound home, but they are certainly not willing to do the same as their elders who may have quietly toiled at a low paying bottom-of- the-barrel job for decades. They have their own goals and expend a huge amount of effort to better themselves, while constantly making moves to improve their job status and increase their pay.

China is now the world's second largest economy and the country continues growing at a fast pace. Some are concerned that China's economic model is over-dependent on a labor-intensive manufacturing sector and that the demographic bonus that supported the model is fast disappearing. That concern is reflected in the departure of some export processing firms from China's coastal cities. However, when we look at the profile of the 80's generation, we can see that China's economic model is changing too. When the demographics of a labor force in a country change, the firms that employ them transform themselves accordingly.

There is a lot for China to gain from this new generation, from this generation's optimistic and positive attitude, from their higher level of knowledge and skills as compared to their parent's generation, from their energetic minds and open-mindedness, from their willingness to say what is on their mind and to not hesitate to act on an opportunity. They are the new and emerging force in China and are the major driver for the future development of the country.

SOURCE Am-media