Comments on: China’s Success Produces A Soft Generation

By: KopyKatKiller

KopyKatKiller — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:45:28 +0000

Mainland Chinese are just weak, short, and not very good at sports. I thought everyone knew that? Why is this news?

By: KopyKatKiller

KopyKatKiller — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:45:12 +0000

Chinese are just weak, short, and not very good at sports. I thought everyone knew that? Why is this news?

By: Big Pile O' Fragrant Roses

Big Pile O' Fragrant Roses — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 01:19:18 +0000

It’s better to compare them to the generation a little AFTER the boomers. The parents of this generation are the ones who had it tough during the com-period. (Or in our case WW2 and the rebuilding.) The ones who grow up now are being spoiled to death by those who had it tough. (In the West it would be those who grew up in the 60′s and 70′s.)

And then generation Y was a repressed generation because their parents were the ones who did drugs and had free sex everywhere, something kids like but parents don’t want for their kids. This generation is also the generation that is coming out of universities/colleges now, during a recession and for many their most vivid news-related memory is 9/11.

So, if we extend that line to China, the next generation, kids of those born in the 90′s/00′s, are going to be less spoiled, and more likely to be at sports clubs. However, most parents in China don’t do the parenting themselves and leave it to the grandparents, so it will take at least an extra generation to effect changes.

By: slim

slim — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 21:23:39 +0000

Boomers were born from 1946-64, before life was too easy in the US and way before American kids started fattening up. I think you might be reaching for GEN Y or slackers or something more apposite.

By: Gay Chevara

Gay Chevara — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:51:57 +0000

My god, those fat little bastards! Hahaha!!

By: mr. wiener

mr. wiener — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:31:34 +0000

No lions around to throw snowballs at I guess.

By: Chackie Jan

Chackie Jan — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 06:56:45 +0000

The fault doesn’t necessarily lie with girls there. A lot of guys here are really insecure when it comes to strong girls. Chinese guys usually demand that the girl earns less than he does. I doubt that the traits ‘strong’, ‘tanned’ and ‘independent’ are the first to come up when you have a poll on admirable traits in women. Of course this isn’t just the case in China, but in many societies dominated by males. However, it does seem a lot more widespread here and guys aren’t even afraid to admit to it.

By: Chinese Netizen

Chinese Netizen — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 06:28:45 +0000

But would not rich tennis star Li Na be a role model these days? Oh…require too much dedication and hard work.

By: Chackie Jan

Chackie Jan — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 06:18:59 +0000

I really noticed how protective and spoiling some parents are during the little snow that fell the last few days. Back home all kids would go out, throw snow balls at each other, fall down, jump on thin ice and laugh when someone breaks through. And then pull that person out together, and laugh a little more.

Here parents go out with their kid, with a bucket and a shovel and then make identical snow men. When a kid tries to run a little bit, they’re told not to and to just shovel snow into the bucket. Also, maybe I didn’t look long enough but I didn’t see any snow ball fights going on. Nor were there kids trying to throw snow balls as high as they could against apartment buildings. Ah, good old times.

By: SeaHorse

SeaHorse — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 04:41:06 +0000

What Jonathan said. Also parents would rather their child work in the service industry than carry bags of rice and tend to sugar canes so they are encouraged to work on their manners and reciting over physical prowess. “A better life for my child” and all that. It’s just a casualty of the times. The best parents are the ones that send their child back to whatever god forsaken farm their families originally came from to know the sting of mosquitos and watch lizards crawl up walls.

By: Tiu Fu Fong

Tiu Fu Fong — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 04:40:21 +0000

“Nowadays wealth parents in China don’t know how to raise well-rounded kids.”

Damn right. A modern kid wouldn’t know the first thing about denouncing his parents, putting up a dazibao or throwing people out windows in an attack on the 4 olds.

By: RhZ

RhZ — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 03:45:31 +0000

Having said that, I think the children in China will grow up to be like America’s boomers.

Ha funny. But also scary.

By: A

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 03:11:07 +0000

Yeah, agree here. And girls are told not to exercise for fear of developing bulky muscles – or even worse – getting tanned from being in the sun.

By: Esther

Esther — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 03:10:43 +0000

Nowadays wealth parents in China don’t know how to raise well-rounded kids. They only care about academic achievement. Think about it in ancient times the Chinese education required students to master the Six Arts (六艺 liù yì) and be, um, perfect. But now we can only see spoiled “smart” kids in China. But don’t blame the kids, blame the parents and the parents would then say, it’s society’s fault.

By: Jonathan Alpart

Jonathan Alpart — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 02:43:41 +0000

I think this makes sense. Chinese people have unprecedented wealth, only children, and just recently survived mass social chaos and trauma. Chinese had traditionally always loved little fatty children, so this seems to be a normal result of historical and social conditions. Hopefully it will balance itself out in the next generation. Having said that, I think the children in China will grow up to be like America’s boomers. Shudder.