China’s intergenerational divide
Older intellectuals find young Chinese childish, nationalist and scary
In recent days, scholars of culture in China have been locked in serious argument about a silly claim: namely, that young people are killing the Chinese language. Their wrangling has filled social-media sites followed by liberal intellectuals, a lively but embattled online world where blog posts may be censored after an hour, but still earn hundreds of thousands of views in that time.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “A generational divide”
From the May 28th 2022 edition
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