Crothall, G. When puritans turn to sex. (1988, August 18). Sunday Standard (Kenya). Elliott, D. (1989, January 23). With change comes a generation gap: China’s young people discard their legacy. Newsweek.

OVERVIEW

These two articles report on critical changes going on within the youth culture of mainland China. In the first, Newsweek reporter, Elliott, from Beijing, reports on youth’s delight in motorcycles, rock and roll, break dancing, hair-blowers, and distinct fashions that signal a break with the recent past.

Huang Yasheng, 28, studied at Harvard and came back to China with ideas of economic reform. He now works as analyst at a foreign bank. His views are not shared by his father, Huang Gang, 72: "We sacrificed everything for the Communist Party and our country. But all the young people care about today is their own self-interest."

Indeed, values and generations are clashing:

What disturbs many older Chinese most seems to be an increasing focus on material wealth. More than 7 million middle-school and high school students dropped out last year—most of them so that they could begin earning money. To many of the older generation that reeks of selfishness, to say nothing of short-sightedness. Other young Chinese anger their parents because they veer from established career paths...In other families the gap has grown even wider. (Newsweek, p. 32)

Xia Xiaowan, 29, cannot understand why his father, long persecuted by the Communist Party because he was the son of a Kuomintang official, should finally join the Party. He admits, "I can’t talk to older people. We have no common language because our interests are so different."

Crothall writes that "sex, for a long time a taboo subject in China’s polite society, is now a hot topic. Sex literature has become an established genre" of novels to be discussed in academic settings and "On The Art of the Nude and Sexual Psychology have become best-sellers."

The topic of sex is becoming prevalent in a variety of Chinese institutions:

Cinema, too, is dealing with sex more explicitly...The official media now talk about sex outside marriage and homosexuality—two subjects until recently considered unmentionable...Sex education is already a common feature in the curriculum of Shanghai’s middle schools.

Pregnancies among unmarried women have dramatically increased, as have prostitution and lesbian relationships. The divorce rate has also shot up as more and more...men have affairs with the temporary women workers.

A survey of 1,000 unmarried men in the Northeast revealed that 736 had little sexual knowledge and 992 wished to know more.

This letter appeared in letter to China Youth:

I am 23 years old. I was recently introduced to a young man who I have grown to like very much. However, he has made a certain request of me (I think you can guess what) and is now trying to blackmail me into accepting it. The problem is I still love him. How should I handle my situation?

The magazine’s response gave encouragement to maintain Chinese duty to postpone sex until marriage, to consider negative consequences, to find counsel from a ‘big sister,’ and not to succumb to base desires but to seek love on a higher plane.

IMPLICATIONS

1. The end of the decade seems to be a watershed for Chinese society dramatized in its new youth. These young people should be watched by all observers of international youth culture and those who interested in the direction of China, the most populous nation on earth.
2. The protests of Chinese youth are spontaneously applauded by most western observers and readers of headlines. But the decadent ills of Western society—selfish materialism, hedonism, cynicism, drug and sexual abuse—are not desired for a generation needed for nation-building. It is hoped that Chinese youth may find opportunity and freedom in a context of noble restraint that serves those who have little of their opportunity.
3. Contact of Chinese youth with those who truly wish them well is most needed at the turn of the decade.