China’s Millennials: The Want Generation

By Phar Kim Beng
Founder/Chair
Strategic Pan Indo-Pacific Arena
Strategicpipa.com
Twitter: @indo_pan
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Strategicpipa

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“China’s Millennials: The Want Generation,” appears to be a book on the egotistical nature of the Chinese born in the early 1990s and early 2000s.
Those born after the 1980s and 1990s, indeed, 2000, have naturally developed certain forms of materialist inclinations.

After all, this was a period of seeming plenty; albeit at great cost to the environment too. But the fact remains, materialistic and narcissistic values were hard to miss. Many carried with them from their teens right into their adult-hood, indeed, marriages, and parenthood too.

But on deeper analysis, the book has actually provided a sympathetic, almost compassionate, account of the inner struggles with which they face on a daily basis. Chinese who were born in the late 1990s and 2000 have suddenly found themselves facing stiff competition at work.

Starting with the short compulsory military training, which the university students need to undergo, Chinese millennials have imbibed this value to out-compete, perhaps even out-maneuver their peers at schools and at work. It is one long conveyor belt of ever-increasing expectation by all sides in the society.

As they try to face the challenges head-on, their fates are dictated by geography, gender, and ultimately, even good looks. Barring the right requirements from any one of the three Gs, their fortunes may diverge quickly and widely; to be saved by the bell only if they possess some prodigious talents that allow them to outshine others.

This book shows the dreams and insecurities of the Chinese, and the extent to which they may have to pursue them on sheer stealth since the Chinese Communist Party is not in the reformist mood yet.