Briefing | Generation Stagnation

China’s defeated youth

Young Chinese have little hope for the future. Xi Jinping wants them to toughen up

A worker tests parts for e-cigarettes on a production line in Shenzhen, China.
Image: Getty Images
|BEIJING AND HUIZHOU

IN THE SOUTHERN city of Huizhou an electronics factory is hiring. The monthly salary on offer is between 4,500 and 6,000 yuan (or $620 and $830), enough to pay for food and essentials, but not much else. The advertisement says new employees are expected to “work hard and endure hardship”. The message might have resonated with Chinese of an older generation, many of whom worked long hours in poor conditions to give their children a brighter future. But many of those children now face similar drudgery—and are unwilling to endure it. “I can’t sit on an assembly line,” says Zhang, a 20-something barista with dyed-red hair at a local tea shop. He scoffs at the idea of making such sacrifices for so little gain. The job at the tea shop pays just 4,000 yuan a month, but he enjoys chatting up customers.

This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “China’s defeated youth”

From the August 19th 2023 edition

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