The Rise of China’s Youth
We so often talk about the younger generation in this country and how it is in the best position to make itself a generation of citizen diplomats, because it is one that has a breadth of energy, knowledge and resources available to it (such as social media and tech knowledge) to bring about unprecedented change to the world. However, the US isn't the only country whose youth is well-positioned to make an impact on the world.
Since the mid to late 1990s, China's economic boom has given its younger generation something to look forward to as China has risen and attained key player status on the world-stage. It's easy to focus on the economic and political impact of this, but so often we don't pay attention to the position in which it puts its younger and more ambitious generation. China is ready, as proved by the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 Shanghai World Expo, to embrace the world in more ways than just economically.
The youth population, which has been born under China's One Child Policy, has seen a drastic unbalanced boy to girl ratio of approximately 132:100 million, given the preference of having a son rather than a daughter during the 1980s and 1990s. What's more, is that overall, China is an aging population, with over 107.9 million over the age of 65, that's approximately 1/3 of the US population.
With a youth population so eager to express themselves via social media, such as on Weibo (Chinese version of Twitter) microblog, this can bring opportunity as well as challenges. The opportunity is that there is now more than ever, more access to citizen to citizen interaction between US and Chinese youth.
Listen to the woman recently referred to as "the Oprah of China", Yang Lan speak about the rise of China's youth engagement at Global Tedx's conference in Edinburgh, Scotland.
It's very interesting so enjoy!
Posted Monday, October 3, 2011