Since the emergence of terms like "post-80s" and "post-90s" generations, China's intergeneration problem has begun to manifest as well. Now, both enterprises and the society have reached the stage of gradual intergenerational handover, which has also formed huge social pressure, making this issue hard to be ignored. Some use the adjective "rebellious" to describe the younger generations in China, the reason is that the newer generations are different from the older ones. Because of such difference, the question would be framed as "different in what aspects?" Because of differences in interests and perspectives, there will be different answers.
The spirit, life, and culture of the 1960s were rebellious. In the West in the 1960s, a large number of young people despised the conventional way of life; they abandoned morality, consciously moved away from the mainstream society, and expressed their rebellion against the real society with a unique lifestyle that could not be seen in mainstream society. This was known as the hippie rebel movement, a movement that had grown huge in scale and gained popularity. At that time, many young people resisted society with extreme behaviors such as exotic costumes, long hair, miniskirts, drugs, rock music, swing dance, and communal living.
Hippies are also keen to express themselves in extreme ways; they sought for psychedelic experience through drugs and by 1960s taking psychoactive drugs became something fashionable among young people, even as a mark of being a qualified hippie; such was the freaks and the heads. According to Newsweek, in 1969, 31.5% of the 57 universities in the United States were affected by drugs. The hippie communes had become gathering places for drugs, and almost all communes did not prohibit or prevent the use of drugs. The indulgence of hippie youth in sexual liberation had aggravated the conflicts between many children and their parents, and many hippies broke away from their families.
At the same time, sexual liberation has brought about social problems such as rising divorce rates, teenage pregnancy, illegitimate children, abortion, and AIDS. In short, the decadent indulgence of the hippies brought bad influence to American society, which makes the hippies synonymous with debauchery, degeneration, and hooliganism. The attitude of the American people towards the culture of hippies and hippies has changed from sympathy and understanding to disgust and opposition.
All in all, these discourses of "rebellion" are superficial, naive, and a "politically correct" denying perspective.
The actual rebellion, from the hippies to the subsequent evolution and development, has another layer of meaning. Hippies got together to study philosophy, and therefore Neo-Marxism was born. Many social disciplines could not ignore their existence, and as they matured, their ideas actually infiltrated and transformed the current worldview. They have influenced the development of so-called modern art. Nowadays, many small theaters and movies that everyone sees are influenced by this rebellious era; artists like Andy Warhol are admitted into the cultural mainstream. And then there is consumption; any rebellion has semiotic consumerism as the thought basis. They are different from their predecessors; one of these rebels founded a small company called Apple, and finally developed products like iPhone and iMac that have changed the world.
Rebellion is a spiritual innovation, and a mental rather than a material choice. Semiotic consumerism is just an expression of their rebellious culture, and there are other expressions, in the forms of music, fictions, paintings, philosophies, education, economics, and social concepts; but all of this is expression, the key lies in thought, which is a kind of rebellious idea different from the past. Without this kind of thought, rebellion becomes a boring excuse that hides laziness, selfishness, and ignorance.
The fundamental difference between China's intergeneration problems is that the young people have the substance but they are without the thoughts of their own. They never rebel; not in the past, nor are they now. They are precisely the byproducts of China's high-growth era, and they are merely the enjoyers who do not have their own essential creation, and there is no reflection through action; they simply choose the easiest way and label themselves as "rebels" as the façade of them being materialists. This has clearly shown that what this material age really is.
Therefore, China's generational gap problems are actually straightforward. It would be good if the young Chinese are rebellious, yet the biggest problem for them is that they are not rebellious at all. Those who categorize themselves as "rebel" and in fact enjoyers, while those who are "obedient" might turn out to be rebellious in the future. These "obedient" young people will have to shoulder the pressure of society and take up the social spiritual and material responsibilities for development. The Chinese society should understand the truth about these "obedient" young people; they might be a minority, but they have to bear the responsibility of the majority.
China has never been willing to adopt normality for the past three thousand years; at least this time it is even less so. The Chinese would rather choose the being quirky in calmness, rather than being calm in quirkiness.
