New year, Chinese, Paris image © gregorypalmer / Pixabay Content Licenses/ pixabay
Introduction
In a society driven by rapid economic and social growth, the urge for productivity, speed, performance, sacrifice, earnings, and single-use consumption penetrates our daily lives. In this competitive context, especially in areas where the maximum expression of performance is manifested, i.e. social media, the current generation, which has never lived without digital networks, is buried under a heightened sense of anxiety. There is a growing need to incorporate principles of sustainable development – such as reducing consumption, promoting well-being, and fostering long-term environmental awareness – into these platforms and the broader societal ethos. By paying attention to the emerging demands of the new generation's digital culture, which echoes the sustainable development goals, this can provide a better understanding of the challenges of our time. This article aims to analyze new trends emerging on Chinese social media, highlighting sentiments shared by young people in China.
Finding themselves induced to the need to demonstrate and assert themselves in society, the current generation falls victim to the competitive nature of society. Previous generations faced significant hardships to emerge from unfavorable conditions. That experience, however, is not directly shared by Gen Zs and Millennials.
To understand what is happening today, a bit of context is necessary. In the early years of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the nation was faced with extremely difficult economic and social conditions. It was only until Deng Xiaoping's decision to open up some parts of China that the country began to prosper. This is best summarised by the famous official declaration in 1979, "Our policy is to let some people and some areas get rich first to drive and help the backward areas." (Bram, 2022). The decision led to the subsequent decades of economic boom.
In 2021, Xi Jinping officially declared that absolute poverty had been eradicated from China (Xie, Liu and Shan, 2021). Yet, inequalities between rural and urban areas, as well as in different provinces, persist. According to the World Bank, based on the GNI per capita, China belongs to the upper middle-income countries category (Metreau, Young and Eapen, 2024). To meet this criteria, the poverty line is $5.50 per day, amounting to $165 per month (around 1204 RMB). In 2020, Premier Li Keqiang stated that 600 billion Chinese earned less than 1000 yuan a month (Li, 2020). Therefore, there remains a gap between state goals and grassroots conditions. Reducing inequalities within and between countries underscores the very nature of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which China has actively worked to achieve through promoting international cooperation, resulting in significant progress (HLPF, 2021).
That said, a part of the population has fared economically better off, and for this reason, the previous generation believed that working hard pays off. Their children witnessed the social changes in China. Being a part of the burgeoning society, they grew up facing intense competition in schools and universities. Due to the long hours dedicated to studying, the youth suffered detrimental blows on their psyche and physique. In 2009, the Ministry of Education highlighted that 76% of adolescents do not have good quality sleep (Wang and Fan, 2023).
Under these circumstances, this significantly impacts the livelihoods of millions of Chinese youth, and the time dedicated to oneself and one's interests is limited. In 2023, research revealed that a staggering 21% of Chinese youth are unemployed (Cash, 2024). Furthermore, after decades of studying, well-educated young people are often employed in jobs where their skillset could not be utilised. Additionally, migrant workers face substantial barriers to employment.
Expectations weighing on young people from the older generations, and society at large, result in significant stress. A direct consequence of this social phenomena is the expression of disenchantment and demands for change on social media. Burdened by those who retain their old mindsets, overwhelmed by social issues, having experienced the pandemic, and troubled by geopolitical tensions around the world, many young Chinese seek a "comfort zone” of their own (Wen and Davey, 2024).
Emerging trends
To illustrate such trends, one can look at social media reports released by the Just So Soul Research Institute (Just So Soul Research Centre, 2024a). The Institute is related to the developers of Soul, a social media platform. Soul was launched in 2016 with the aim of connecting people with the same interests and hobbies. The developers seek to create a metaverse where people can feel free and secure to share their feelings, building a network through deep conversation and common interests. It is an algorithm-driven app, which prompts users to take a quiz promptly after registration. The quiz asks questions like “What do you do to feel happy”, aiming to find people who share the same interests. “Soulers” (users of Soul) are mostly people aged 18 and 24 years. Today, it has about 30 million members.
The Just So Research Institute launched a survey to gauge user preferences. It explored the concept of self-love, the idea of friendship and time dedicated to it, and the perceived sense of ‘real’ companionship, which reflects the desire for a narrower and more intimate connection in the digital age. According to user responses, frequent contact with a small circle of people, "detached from appearances" and focused on friendship quality, helps replace overabundance and overstimulation. This demand emerged from the fact that most social media apps encourage passive scrolling, observing, and posting only to be "looked at".
Faced with challenges of the modern age, academic pressure, high geographic mobility, and the rapid pace of life, it can be seen that overall, the size of participants’ circle of friends has shrunk. Friends frequently lose contact because of the high focus on everyday obligations, and as a result, individuals become more lonely. This sentiment is something shared by young people from all over the world, as studies and media reports show that over-digitalization is causing anxiety and alienation. (Teepe, Glase and Reips, 2023). Due to this emerging sense of isolation, among the demands recorded in the survey, there is a call for spending more time with a small group of friends, cultivating friendships without being forced to take on social cues.
Soul posits itself as an alternative that allows such desires to be realised. The app allows people to display themselves using digital avatars, refraining from necessarily showing their true identities. Free from the pressure related to appearance, age, and work, users feel more comfortable without comparing themselves to others, allowing them to focus on their common interests and spiritual affinities. This mode of operation, therefore, translates into a more qualitative use of social media, allowing one to escape the demand for validation and the search for approval.
Stemming from this tendency to focus on quality over quantity, and on one's own needs and passions, another trend emerges – one that calls for a more parsimonious life. Such a lifestyle encourages one to spend more consciously without wasting, especially on food, and to obtain only what one practically needs (Tan and Zhou, 2024). It is not surprising that a significant amount of young people are making this choice given their much lower salaries in comparison to the high cost of living, especially in large cities, and the difficulties they encounter in finding stable employment.
Rather than buying expensive brands, the youth prefer to compare prices on various e-commerce platforms to find good quality at a reasonable amount. Influencers have also joined in and are advising on how to save money and spend wisely. Among the most used terms on this topic on social media, there is “reverse consumption” (反向消费) (Just So Soul Research Centre, 2024b). This trend is so widespread that it seems to be giving a new shape to the way people spend in China and to consumerism. Young people seem to find greater satisfaction in having a little money set aside in the bank and in living a less extravagant low-cost life. In other words, all of this fits into the request of Gen Z and Millennials for a new life balance, also called the “Zero Sugar” (零糖) lifestyle on social media. Such practice starts from a balanced way of living, of self-love, including the awareness to be more frugal, which is then extended to social and working life.
The change in young people’s living attitude also impacted their views on work-life balance. Reports and media narratives often refer to the “European,” “American” and “Chinese” work models as three different work cultures in terms of hours, pace, earnings, and free time (Clifton and Pa, 2022; Turntuck, 2023). The “European” model appears to be recognised by the youth to have embodied the ideal pace of working life. In contrast to the “American dream”, where working hard promises a place “among the stars”, the so-called “European” model allows one to alternate between their working and personal life, balancing the two by dedicating suitable hours to both (York, 2023). The new generation seems to yearn for a future where the “European” work model is to be implemented. They are disappointed by the “hustle culture” and the definition of the self based on career successes. The myth of talent and the idea that “if you want, you can” are also viewed with strong scepticism, as the youth increasingly refuse to believe that such practices could lead to luxurious lifestyles, which are actually inaccessible to most. The media described the ‘European’ working culture as one where employees “ do not live to work, but work to live” (Clifton and Pa, 2022). Such a statement correlated to a series of statistics from pre-pandemic reports up to 2024 (UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, 2022), which states that the highest happiness index was found in the European Union while the region holds the lowest employment rate.
As explored below, in a country accustomed to the 996 work culture (nine a.m. to nine p.m., six days a week), the new Chinese generation also raises its voice and does it in the way they know best: through social media. For instance, with China’s boom years passing by, millions of young Chinese are facing an increasingly uncertain future. 11 million students graduated this year, many of whom are finding work in areas that do not match their personal or academic abilities (Tang, Huang, Lu, Zheng and Jia, 2024). Many have headed into doing manual labor or worked for companies with unrelated experiences, and have received a much lower salary than expected.
In the minds of Gen Z, the idea of ‘work’ is being gradually reconceptualised. According to the anthropologist Xiang Biao, a professor at Oxford University, an entire generation has been shaped by the assumption that if you study and work hard enough, you will get well-paid jobs and a life with excellent standards (Bicker, 2024). However, this promise has not been kept. Among the requests, therefore, emerges a greater attention to the life of the individual, who is the one driving economic development and industrial growth. In the PRC, following a series of episodes where worker burnout has resulted in suicide and suicide attempts, the state has outlawed ‘996.’ It is in this climate that the new generation of Chinese people position themselves like the young people of the rest of the world, in a growing sense of dissatisfaction with the “overwork” ethic (Schulte, 2024). This mindset differs significantly from the claims of the older generation, according to which sacrificing one’s free time for work is the only way to a happy and satisfying life.
As a result, the “tang ping” (躺平) movement, which translates as ‘lie flat’, is spreading on social media. This movement reaches great resonance among the youth. It calls for the refusal to work, a form of non-cooperation, and taking time out for oneself in the face of strong social pressures, fast-paced work, and unrealistic expectations (Ye, 2021). In the name of what can be defined as a counterculture of “workaholism”, young people stop as in a sort of “thanatosis” caused by too much stimulation, the overabundance of information, pressure, opportunities and at the same time the impossibility of accessing them. The need to indulge one's vocations is increasingly arising, without necessarily following a pre-established path that leads to visibility, to sacrifices, to a career previously considered "coveted", and which today is no longer convincing. The BBC even states that the new generation is "rewriting the Chinese dream" (Bicker, 2024).
The government's response is as follows. In official speeches, President Xi Jinping urges the Chinese youth to "eat bitterness", a term indicating the need to "hold on" and work hard (Xinhua, 2023). According to some sources, this rhetoric reduces pervasive social discontent to the claim that the younger generation could not endure pain and hardship (Bicker, 2024). For others, this Chinese idiom is used to encourage young people to “look for bitterness to eat”, seeking hardship to do better and to stay optimistic (Wei, 2024). If one reads the PRC’s first White Paper on the development of the new generation, one could observe an attempt to reverse the youth-blaming narrative (Xinhua, 2022). It focuses on addressing issues faced by young people of this century, linking youth issues to the official rhetoric of the Chinese dream, one that cuts across yesterday, today, and tomorrow. It underlines all the tools they have today, for example, greater attention to mental health, a climate of legal security, and the possibility of realising their dreams.
Conclusion
In conclusion, a very clear trend in Chinese social development can be observed. The urge for young people to readjust their lifestyle, work culture, and social relationships persists online. Their search for authenticity, and a more meaningful existence, drives a cultural shift to reduce stress and to give voice to their needs, which converge with the principles of sustainability. The idealisation of success and perfection proposed by social media is being rectified, along with a review of one’s material desires. These trends are also partly a response to the difficulty and anxiety of "reaching" the expectations imposed by society.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alessia specialized in Sales and Communication with a background in Import-Export processes. Expanding her knowledge in Digital Marketing, she has taken on roles as a writer, translator, and content creator for China-Europe and China-Italy relations. She holds a Master's Degree in Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa from the University of Naples "L'Orientale" and has a strong passion for global languages and cultures.
This article was edited by Kalos Lau and Sardor Allayarov.
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