This may be a new phrase for you, as it was for me when I first heard it. Believe it or not “post 90s kids” (90后的孩子) is becoming a common phrase here in China, where the population is experiencing unprecedented social changes. While most discussions on China’s population focus on the fact that they will have a very geriatric majority soon enough the Chinese youth are a far more interesting topic and will have a great impact on the future China we will all live in. The post-90s kids are really the first generation to have grown up completely in the period of contemporary Reform and Opening, that is Deng Xiaoping’s great economic revolution that brought free market capitalism, cell phones, and the internet to the people. Though us ’80s kids saw such changes too, the changes since 1990 have made the 1980s in China look like a bygone era of respectability and poverty.
When I first arrived here in Hunan I got back in touch with my old host brother, from my days as a high school student in Beijing. He is now in his third year at a university in Beijing and this summer he worked for his school’s version of freshman orientation. Over the phone he asked me: “What do you think of ’90s kids?” “What do you mean ’90s kids?” I replied. He seemed astounded that I did not know the term and proceeded to explain himself and what he thought of this new generation. “They’re so selfish, spoiled, and have no respect for anyone,”was his explanation. Fascinating stuff, but I didn’t think too much about it till I found this article on China Smack.
China is all changes these days. If you can’t read Chinese your likely to miss a lot of it. Enter China Smack. This absolutely amazing blog translates interesting posts from Chinese BBS, also called internet forums. These BBS allow people to post stories and pictures, while also letting the greater public anonymously comment. China Smack is filled with stories of sex, drugs, and rock and roll (no to mention anti-Japanese sentiment, police brutality, and stories of poverty). These forums are often the best way to understand “which way the wind is blowing,” as one smart young man once said. Danwei describes them well:
Internet fora, or BBS, were one of the first types of website in China to get young Chinese hooked, and they remain very popular. Chinese BBS are a refreshing contrast to the stodgy state media, and the cowed privately-managed media.
So it is no wonder I received the best description of who these “post-90s kids” are from China Smack and the world of the Chinese BBS. My students are post-90s kids, as are the many Chinese students now in their first year of college. Freshman year in America and western Europe may be characterized by care-free abandon, but here in China freshman starts with the exact opposite of a college party: one month of forced military training （军训).
