Abstract
China’s new generation, born during the 1980s and 1990s, is a social cohort that has grown up in the era of reform and opening-up. They are simultaneously influenced by and play a critical role in a series of significant historical events in the aftermath of the reform and opening-up. The life course of this generation is intertwined with significant social changes, such as fast economic growth, the one-child policy, education expansion, the rise of the Internet, marketization, industrialization, urbanization, and globalization. These changes greatly affect their living circumstances and opportunities, shaping the generational characteristics while widening the intergenerational gap between them and the previous generations. At the same time, however, China’s new generation is unable to break the constraints of the social structure. The shared generational identity fails to eliminate the socioeconomic disparities within the generation. In contrast, marketization has strengthened the Chinese class structure through intergenerational transmission. In China’s new era of development, promoting equal opportunities and narrowing socioeconomic inequality among the new generation now proves to be a new challenge.
Highlights
Having grown up in the era of reform and opening-up, China’s new generation1 has developed unique social characteristics during the historical transformation of the country
The post-1980 generation was born at the early beginning of the reform and opening-up
In addition to physical health, much attention has been paid to the impact of the one-child policy on the psychological characteristics, behavioral patterns, and values of China’s new generation
Summary
Having grown up in the era of reform and opening-up (since 1978), China’s new generation has developed unique social characteristics during the historical transformation of the country. As a major historical event in China, the one-child policy has shaped the generational characteristics of the youth This policy, combined with the country’s rapid economic growth, has a massive impact on the life course of the new generation. In addition to physical health, much attention has been paid to the impact of the one-child policy on the psychological characteristics, behavioral patterns, and values of China’s new generation It was once a big concern in society that the single children born after 1980 or after 1990 could become a “beat generation” that was overdependent, spoiled, self-centric, or lacked a sense of social responsibility (Bao 2011).
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