劳动人事学院 汪云昕

Labeled as lying flat, the younger generation in China actually bears a heavy workload, working extra hours six days a week (Soho, 2021). Tagged as self-serving elites, they actually show great solidarity and dedication in the combat against the pandemic. There are credits heaped on them, and criticism fired against them. Some people attribute the seeming paradox to the misunderstanding that lying flat equals taking on a tranquil attitude towards life (Zou, 2018). To better comprehend Chinese youth, we need to explore their complexity and uniqueness rather than defining them by partial labels of bias and contradiction. Identified by shared traditions but transcended by the new era and individuality, Chinese youth is shouldering social responsibilities, which can be reflected in their pursuit of personal success and social justice.

Chinese youth is in no way lying flat, but taking on a tranquil attitude toward life. They embrace life to realize true values of themselves and evade endless involution, the fierce competition against each other under the identical goal. It is far from decadence or laziness because it has nothing to do with abandoning pursuit. In fact, industriousness and endurance are traditional virtues carved in the genes of every Chinese, including Chinese youth, as their average of 9.2 working hours per day ranks the highest in the world (Chinese youth paper, 2018). Yet they distinguish themselves by their dedication to what they truly appreciate and achievement in the fields that they truly belong to, not by what is traditionally considered useful and successful, because the tranquil attitude saves them from excessive secular calculations and emboldens them to follow their heart. To illustrate, a graduate of Tsinghua University, Shi Yue, abandon her potential decent job as an architect and the major she has dived deep for six years to be a video game streamer, which is a difficult path of uncertainty and hard work but a choice of true love. Whether on traditional paths or new paths like this, Chinese youth is playing a part in society.

Contrary to traditional views on success evaluated by wealth or status, their pursuit is often linked to larger communities and even the nation. The Chinese young blogger, Li Ziqi, moved from the city to a small village, spending all her time tending to gardens, and making traditional furniture and delicacies. Deeply drawn to Chinese traditional culture, she took great pleasure in what she was doing and introduced them to the world, reaping more than 16 million fans on YouTube and over 100 million fans globally on all platforms, which also makes her an ambassador of Chinese culture and international communication. When fortune is within easy reach, she resisted the temptation of the commercial world and devoted herself to culture spread and rural revitalization through her influence. Recently, she has set out on a new journey as the agent of a child care fund. For her, all her efforts are put into where her true passion lies and what the nation needs. And this is not an individual example. The average age of the Change 5 team is under 33 years, more than thirty percent of medical staff coming to Wuhan’s aid is generation Z… We see more and more Chinese youth emerging in where the nation and society need. They’re fearless even though the future is strewn with thorns and clouded by uncertainty, as China's development process is moving into a new phase and long-run problems beginning to emerge. Soaring housing prices, an aging society, shrinking job markets- these problems magnified by the slowdown of economic growth the abrupt pandemic brings, burden Chinese youngsters, but not intimidate them (Lin&Gao, 2021). It is their reconcilement with life to blaze a separate trail to success and work hard on things they enjoy as well as meaningful to the nation, rather than struggling desperately for so-called success in pursuit of mere wealth or status.

What’s more, Chinese youth are braver to practice social justice within regulation frameworks. Chinese society is what great sociologist Fei Xiaotong once described as the "pattern of different sequence" (Fei,1948), like the ripples of a stone tossed on the water, spreading out from central points to complicated webs. Because of this characteristic, the elder generations are sometimes imprisoned by social ties not to hurt others’ feelings. Nevertheless, Chinese youth, bathed in an atmosphere of justice and equality and blessed with a strong concept of rules and rights, always seek formal and legal ways to guard their principles. During the revision of the civil code, many young people contributed to proposing suggestions, and recently the revision of Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women attracted 420 thousand proposals. These are all vivid manifestations of contemporary Chinese youth’s concept of justice and rights. Also, they stick to their beliefs, even if it means challenging the giant. In 2019, a student of East China University of Political Science and Law, Wang Jieying sued the entertainment giant Disney for its unreasonable rules to search tourists' backpacks and dispose of food inside. She only claimed compensation of 46.3 yuan (7.06 dollars) for herself, but succeeded in making local Disneyland change the rule and guard the right of all tourists. A more universal way of Chinese youth's social participation is being involved in discussions online on hot social issues, which has been phenomenal on platforms from the government’s website to social media. By their direct and indirect practice of social justice, they’re fulfilling their responsibilities to uphold principles and build a better society.

Contemporary Chinese youth are such a group of people, escaping involution but embracing dreams, respecting models but rejecting modes, aware of social maladies but aspiring to change them. They are rising from the rough storm of difficulties, with their presence and strengths, reshaping images of them, the rising waves of a vibrant sea, and even the landscape of times. Let them roar and roll, rising waves.  

References

996社畜实录：被喂食高薪兴奋剂，打工人就该拿命换钱？https://www.sohu.com/a/444681959_467279

费孝通.(1948).乡土中国. 三联书店.

徐文越.(2022). 复杂现代性视域下当代中国青年精神生活特质解析. 青少年学刊(01),45-49+56. doi:10.16399/j.cnki.qsnyj.2022.01.004.

邹诗鹏.(2018). 作为亚文化以及社会情绪的“佛系”现象. 探索与争鸣（4）：44-47.