Why Are Young People Not So Interested in Politics?

This week on Sinica, Kaiser chats with Stephanie Studer, China correspondent for The Economist, who recently published a special report in the magazine about China’s “Post-90s” generation; and with Alec Ash, author of the book Wish Lanterns, which looks at a cohort of Chinese youth born between 1985 and 1990. The two explore the apparent contradictions between, on the one hand, the cosmopolitanism and socially progressive attitudes of young Chinese today and, on the other, their increasingly assertive national identity. 

9:15: Social liberalism and nationalism

10:55: Less impressed by the west

27:38: China’s millennials and their western counterparts

38:06: A progressive generation and regressive regime 

43:12: How state actors affect post-90’s discourse

Read more about China’s new youth here on SupChina, by Alec Ash. 

Recommendations:

Stephanie: Frank Dorn’s jigsaw map of 1936 Beijing, available on the Beijing Postcards website.

Alec: He recommends traveling to Dali, Yunnan, as well as trying the provincial cuisine. 

Kaiser: The column Beijing Lights, published on the Spittoon Collective website.

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