Ambitious, rebellious and free-spirited: China's millennials through American eyes
China's millennials have diverging views that may be a challenge for the authorities. Bernice Chan talks to a writer who spent years tracking this shift
Eric Fish was 22 years old when he arrived in Nanjing in 2007 to teach English and writing to university students. The American from Kansas City also wound up teaching them about his native culture, too: students had as many questions about pop culture, the US political system, and gun laws as they did about the language.
And as a political science graduate, Fish was not only seeking work experience but also keen to observe the social and economic changes unfolding in China.
The gulf in mindset that he found between older students pursuing advanced degrees and younger undergraduates prompted him to record the shifts, initially in articles for publications such as Foreign Policy and The Atlantic, and eventually led to a book, China's Millennials: The Want Generation.
"When you look at foreign media, Chinese millennials are described as pliant, brainwashed, and nationalistic to the point where they don't care about loftier political things. But that's not the case," he says. "They have divergent and informed opinions."
Now a writer for Asia Society New York, Fish attributes many shifts in attitude to developments in information technology.
When he first arrived in China, domestic social media such as Weibo had yet to emerge while Facebook and Twitter were still accessible (both have since been blocked).