WE ARE THE POST - 80s GENERATION
We were born in the year 1980, a year that marked the launch of China’s infamous family planning policy, known as the One-child phenomenon. Those born after the year 1980 share the same experience of growing up within a period of reform and an “opening up” to the world. The post-1980s have thus become the first group to be collectively defined within China’s social sphere in this way. The post-80s became the first group of people to crop up in social discussions related to the distinct historical context we grew up in, a context that includes trends towards materialism. Many labels have been created to describe the post-80s including the beat generation, the least responsible generation and the most selfish and rebellious generation.
I initiated this photography book based on my own experience as a member of the post-80s generation. I am an only child, born in an urban Chinese city, though I grew up in New Zealand. My personal interest is to observe this generation from an “insider and outsider” perspective in order to provide a greater understanding and ethos. In doing so, I also seek to illustrate a personal reflection of who I am and what it means to be part of this post-80s generation.
I have constructed a body of photographic work, featuring a group of post-80s participants and their surrounding environment in urban cities. Through a series of focus questions and strong recognition of the post-80s identity and destiny, this publication adopts a documentary style to portray the diversity of this group’s lives, in such areas as love, children, employment, housing, family, choices, responsibilities and dreams. In their stories, you may find joy along with sadness, sorrow and helplessness, mingled with hope, resolution, and perseverance.
Start from here, I would like to close them, document them, focus on them, which is the way to find them and also to reflect myself.
Yujia Zhang
Feather
Feather
I am twenty-nine years old. I attended and graduated from universities in Sweden and Finland, attaining a master’s degree. I have since returned to my hometown of Guangzhou, China. I describe myself as self-centered, rebellious, uncompromising and spontaneous. I think that careerism and an independent lifestyle are the most important things though such motivating factors cause me anxiety at present. I care very much about my family, my well being, my friends and personal freedom. I enjoy a good relationship with my parents. For the most part, they are open-minded and respect my decisions in life, even if they make no great secret of their expectations for me.
They have different views on lifestyle and future planning and they frequently pressure me. This is a primary cause for an argument between my parents and me.
They have different views on lifestyle and future planning and they frequently pressure me. This is a primary cause for an argument between my parents and me.
Shiming Wong
Tiffany
Tiffany
I am a Guangzhou girl, twenty years old, and I work in a Starbucks coffee house. I describe myself as rebellious, uncompromising, self-centered and occasionally I feel helpless. My ultimate dream is to be successful in attaining a New Zealand working holiday visa and to open a coffee shop. The biggest challenge in my life is looking for a boyfriend so as to get married.
I am worried that I will be single forever if I cannot find the right person. I have had a few blind dates, which my parents organised. I only hope that I can meet a normal man and he can take responsibility for the family. A stable income, house and car are very important. I am a realistic person, I need to guarantee my children’s life. When I was seventeen I thought that nothing is more important than love but when I got older, I started to realise that reality is much more practical than I thought, after all, this is the Chinese value of marriage. He should be taller than me to make me feel secure. I have to admit that I care about looks.
I am living with my parents now. I am OK with it right now, though sometimes I worry about my mum because she has depression and often has a short temper. I have a very deep generational gap with my parents; I think that we will never understand each other. I do not think that I have a good relationship with my parents. They give me too much pressure when it comes to marriage. They always force me to have blind dates or try to arrange a date for me. I am really sick of it, sick of the Chinese perspective on marriage. I will lie to them that I have a boyfriend next time if they offer me a blind date again.
Yanhua Lu
Eva
Eva
I am a thirty-five year old single mother of a ten year old boy. I am also an entrepreneurial local resident of Guangzhou. I manage an online fashion business and I’m also a tattooist. Recently divorced, my young son and I moved back into my parents’ apartment.
I describe myself as a genuine and unbounded person. Since I have a new boyfriend, I don’t live at home anymore. My parents look after my son very well and I really trust them. I only worry that my parents spoil their grandson too much and that he is not doing well at school but I am too busy with my own life, so I don’t have a lot of spare time for my son.
Family is the most important and meaningful concept in my life. No matter how tough life is my family will always support me and give me strength and confidence. They are my backbone. My son’s study is a big challenge in my life at present and often causes tension between my parents and myself. Generally, I have a good relationship with my parents, especially with my mum. We definitely experience a generational gap and sometimes it is very hard for us to communicate. Most of the time we have arguments and disagreements on how to educate my son. My mum is always very soft and relaxed on him and he does not listen to her. But on the other hand, I am tough and more critical of him. Sometimes I lose my patience with my son and that causes arguments between my mum and me.
Xiangquan Li
I am a very reserved, quiet twenty-eight year old man who works as a security guard in a residential building.
I am one of many migrants who come from remote villages to the larger cities, Guangzhou in this case, to pursue a better life for both my family and myself. I am a very conservative person, my personality is genuine, rational and self-centred. Most of the time I feel frustrated about city life.
Persistence is the key to hold on to my dreams. I wish that I could have a happy family. Marriage and housing are the biggest challenges in my life at present. It’s unacceptable to get married without my own house; it is a Chinese tradition that if people want to get married they must own the first marriage house. This is the man’s responsibility, even I don’t know where to start.
I have a good relationship with my parents, I respect and listen to them. It is called filial piety, as is observed within Chinese traditional culture. They always put pressure on me to get married soon. I don’t want my parents to worry anymore. But I am unlucky, I don’t have a girlfriend.
I don’t have many friends in Guangzhou. If I get the day off from work, I like to play games on my phone and surf the Internet, these are my favourite social activities.
Jiahao Li
I am a twenty-five year old father of a one-year-old daughter. I work for a real estate development group as an assistant.
I’ve ranked the most important and meaningful things in my life at present - Family > Social network > Career > Money > Hobby
I would like to explain this with my traditional values, from my hometown. Firstly, to get married while starting a career. I would like to get married first and then to start my career. I am a traditional Chinese man. My family means a lot to me, equal to my own life. I need to take more responsibilities in my marriage.
I like singing - I am going to sing at my friend’s bar, as a sort of challenge. In terms of my living environment, I am living at a property owned by the company I work for but every weekend I return to my hometown which is two hours drive away. I stay with my family and parents. My wife and I have bought our own house now, but we’ve yet to start the renovation.
I have a good relationship with my parents. They hope that I can have a stable job (a steady 9-5 job) but I hope that I can start my own business. My parents gave me the idea of going on a blind date, which is how I met my wife. I understand and accept the idea and think that it is another option in the “match” or dating market. I wish to grow old with my own family.
Bai Yei Ge Zi
I am a twenty-year old mum to a two-year-old daughter. I manage my own online business and my husband is a member of the post-80s as well. The most important, meaningful thing is to try and find a great balance between my family and my career. To spend more time with my baby and to play and grow up together - these are the priorities in my life and I am very happy with it. I want to be a good mum, have a happy family and a great lifestyle with no financial stress. Owning my own house is very important to me at present, but we are still living with my parents.
In my idea of my marriage, if we have confidences in our marriage and understand what we want, then the marriage will work out. Marriage is just a layout for me. I got married with nothing. But I believe we will have a good marriage if we work hard.
I have a good relationship with my parents and I love them very much, even we have different values in life. Their expectation is that I am less busy and less stressed about my work. I can totally understand their expectations for me because I have the same expectations for my daughter.
Zhazha Yang
I am a thirty-four year old photographer. My dream is to become a professional photographer, this is the key to success to me. Looking for a girlfriend is the challenge for me at present, because the pressure from family and parents is making me feel anxious.
I definitely feel the generation gap with my parents, sometimes it is very difficult for me to communicate with them. I love my parents, they actually don’t put a lot of pressure on me but when it comes to marriage, they want me to get married soon. It will take a time to find the right person for me. I have tried to communicate to them, but have failed. I have even hired a girlfriend and brought her home during the Chinese New Year in 2012 - it was quite funny. My parents have set me up on blind dates many times. I hate it very much but I have to go and it is a way to show respect to my parents. I don’t have any requirements for my marriage, such as house or car, just so long as we love each other.
Meng Ying Li
Lemon
Lemon
I am a twenty-eight year old mum who recently had given birth to a son, now three months old. My husband is also a member of the post-80s.
The family is the most important thing in my life. I am a new mum - raising my son is my first priority in life. Aside from my son, my career is also taking a place of prominence in my life too.
In my opinion, if one lacks a career or hobbies, you will lack confidence and personality. It will become a dangerous sign towards my relationship with family and friends.
My personality is characterised by integrity, insistence, emotion and a little bit of rebellion. As a post-80s, I like my actions to speak louder than words. My personality is very stubborn, I like to chase perfection. In my opinion, as long as I am happy with my life, I think it is a kind of success. I don’t choose to live for others, this is very important for me. It is kind of a waste of time if you can’t accept who you are.
How to raise my son is the biggest challenge in my life. In today’s society, satisfying a child in a vital and martial way is not the problem. I think the problem is, what kind of person will be? We are the one-child post-80s generation, which has grown up in a competitive environment with older generations. Children will be easily spoiled as they are the centre of the family. It is a challenge to raise a child. Not only to educate the child but also to communicate with our parents to avoid more difficulties. I don’t have anything to be worried about. I believe in going with the flow. I will try to do my best, worrying does not solve problems.
We have our own house. We temporarily live with parents because I just gave a birth.
I don’t like to live with parents after getting married because it will cause problems the mother-in-law. Luckily, we had our own place before getting married.
Before my child can go to kindergarten, we will need our parents to look after the baby. It is impossible to live on company property nowadays in China, especially in the generation of the post-80s. We need to buy our own house and our parents will help us with the down payment and we will pay the mortgage.
I must have a ring to get married, men do not have to own a house so long as there is a place to live, even if that means renting. I don’t like to live with parents. I can almost accept it but that’s dependent on the situation. If the rental is the same as the monthly mortgage, I would rather choose to buy a house.
I don’t think that I experience a generation gap with my parents. I share everything in my life with them but the two generations have different educational backgrounds. Of course, we will have different opinions on certain things. I have a good relationship with my parents. As I’ve said, we don’t have any secrets. We all like to share with each other. Starting with my student life, my parents never gave me any pressure, only expectation. I married my husband, who went to the same university as me, after dating for seven years. My parents never gave me any pressure or interfered in my relationship. Even if I hadn’t have gotten married, I don’t believe that my parents would have set up a blind date for me, unless I couldn’t find a boyfriend.
Every girl dreams about marriage. I always dreamed of having a white wedding when I was young. The champagne, the roses - a fairytale wedding with the affectionate line of “yes, I do!”. But, as I grow older, I have started to realise that this isn’t necessarily marriage. Honesty, responsibility and commitment are the key elements for marriage. I hope that this can bring more spice into the relationship.
Li Chen
I am a twenty-six years old and have no job currently. Having my own family is the most important thing at present because I will get married soon with my boyfriend. Concerning life challenges, I don’t really know but at the least, family and dreams for the future are very important to me. Stable income and enough savings are the conditions for me to get married.
I have a very plain relationship with my parents. We don’t really communicate with each other. Because they always give me too much pressure and expect a lot from me. They’d like me to complete the dream of prosperity that they missed out in their own generation. They don’t know how to express their love to me. Most of the time we end up in “cold war” arguments. I would rather live by myself, that would make me feel comfortable.
Qiang Ren
I am a twenty-six year old salesman in engineering. I think that having a good career is the most important meaningful thing in my life at present. As a young person, working hard to build experience and financial independence in an age full of energy and passion are the ultimate goals for me. I will have more abilities and capabilities to support my parents and my own family.
Having a successful career and happy family are the important elements of success to me. I want to have my own house but it is a challenge for me at the present because the property market in China is very expensive.
I am renting a house with my flatmates and I’m very happy with it. I have a very good relationship with my parents. I am a very independent person, because I went to boarding school in my teenage years which meant that I had to make a lot of decisions on my own, which my parents really respect. Compared with others who are in my age group, I don’t get much pressure from them. The only hope they have is that I aspire to a successful career which is my ultimate goal. When I have free time, I like to spend it with friends at dinners, such as hot pot and yum-cha.
