People’s Daily published an article, “Do Not Let Youth Be Stained by a Mannered Decline,” saying that the post-80s generation had aged overnight and become listless and dispirited. Of course, the internet quickly produced many rebuttals, but many of those rebuttals were in fact still echoing People’s Daily: yes, the post-80s are dispirited, but that is because the environment has forced them into it. Those rebuttals simply blamed the environment a bit more fiercely, that’s all.
Those rebuttals missed the point entirely. The key question is: are the post-80s really dispirited? Are the ones who are truly dispirited really the post-80s?
The pressure of the environment—this much even People’s Daily points out. But the key is: under that environmental pressure, is the post-80s generation’s response really what is called “being dispirited”?
In the minds of the older generations, “youth” is basically a stage of physical strength: to be young means to have endless energy, means to struggle tenaciously and endure hardship. If one speaks of the spiritual dimension, then it probably refers to a spirit that knows no law, one that dares to break through and dares to fight.
The passionate Red Guards and the hardship-enduring sent-down youths were probably the models of “young people.”
People’s Daily says our parents and grandparents “set an example for us with the fighting spirit of keeping weapons under one’s pillow and waiting for dawn,” while today’s young people “encounter spiritual confusion and a lack of identity.”
But what is a young person, after all? A young person is precisely someone who is carefree, mischievous, confused, and searching for self-identity. The post-80s are exactly the first generation of young people in decades, startling the old folks, who mistakenly thought that the condition they had back then was what youth really was—a huge misunderstanding.
Were the Red Guards and sent-down youths young people? Of course, in a certain sense, they were young people too. The former were wildly inflamed and rebellious; the latter bore hardship and were obedient. But neither rebellion nor obedience is a trait of youth; they are rather the condition of the whole society, merely displayed through young people. Young people in every era are the most active people: neither like middle-aged people, who serve as pillars or trunks, nor like children and adolescents, who are wholly entrusted to the future in a state of budding potential. Young people are those who rush to the very front line, or rather float on the very surface; they are the place where the spirit of the age unfolds.
Young people are a specialty of the human species. Animals generally have only the distinction between offspring and maturity. On the one hand, this is because human life spans are longer, far beyond what is required for reproduction. On the other hand, it is also because human growth is not entirely a matter of physique. In fact, young people may even be a specialty of modern times, a product of the cultural and educational environment since the Enlightenment. That is why we can understand why it was only in the 1980s that China began to produce its first generation of young people. So what, then, are the hallmarks of young people? In essence, young people are a blank space between childhood and adulthood, an empty stage—useless, ungrounded, without belonging. Therefore the defining trait of youth is confusion; they find no ready path to tread either way, and innocence and maturity create a tension within them. I discussed this at length five years ago in the article “EVA.” Since that article is now rather old and its title may obscure it, few people may have read it. So let me quote a particularly relevant passage here again: the hallmark of youth is the awakening of self-consciousness. Whether it is confusion or lack of identity, whether it is free and easy or sharp and enterprising, whether it is cynical and world-weary or enthusiastic and engaged, whether it is wantonly flamboyant or deliberately profound… all of these are different ways of seeking and constructing the self. Chinese parents are not accustomed to the existence of “young people”; they hope that children can become mature overnight. They tell children black-and-white fairy tales in which justice triumphs over evil, and then, suddenly one day, they turn around and begin to instill in adolescents the lesson of how “realistic” society is. The world seems to have turned overnight from a black-and-white opposition into one shrouded in gray haze. But the world of young people is colorful; it is a world those “adults” who grew up in that black-and-white era have never seen. This dazzling, brilliantly variegated world can leave one dazzled and disoriented. Of course, adults mean well—since you must grow up sooner or later, wouldn’t it be better to take fewer detours, suffer fewer confusions, and grow up painlessly, overnight? This is just like parents hoping that children will bury themselves in hard study during school and put an end to puppy love, only to hope that as soon as they graduate they will immediately start a family, build a career, and have children. Is that possible? Of course it is possible, as long as the adults arrange the marriage for them. But if one must go through “free” love, how can one completely avoid bewilderment, intoxication, stumbling, anxiety, pain, and struggle, and all those other “negative” elements? Without these immature experiences, how can one even call it youth? Growth without confusion is like marriage without passionate love: it may be peaceful and joyful, but it is ultimately not complete enough. Let us compare the Chinese-translated lyrics of EVA once more with the original lyrics; the difference is truly striking: the Chinese version clearly expresses the expectations People’s Daily and its like have for “young people”: “A beautiful angel calls you from afar; fearless and supremely steadfast, work hard for tomorrow, do not hesitate any longer, hurry and create a miracle!” Thank heaven, their hopes came to nothing. The beautiful angel failed. Just like that cruel angel, post-80s generation, become a myth!
Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.
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