The kids are not alright
New Zealand Listener|September 9, 2024
Nuanced account details how China's blessed generation has been replaced by one consumed by fear and hopelessness.
ANNA FIFIELD
The kids are not alright

Some Chinese university students last year marked their graduations not by posing with their degree certificates but by lying face down, zombie-style, on college steps and lawns. The phenomenon, posted across Chinese social media, embodied the idea of "lying flat", used by the generation born after 2000 to express the widespread feeling that they won't be able to get ahead so why even try?

How did China change, in a generation, from a country where kids born in the boondocks could grow up to be big-city slickers to one where 20-somethings feel so dejected about their prospects they are literally lying down?

Fortunately for us, esteemed New Yorker journalist Peter Hessler has a new book to tackle that question. And with it, he poses a bigger and even more perplexing question: how can China have gone through such enormous economic and social change but remained politically stagnant? Or worse: regressed?

OTHER RIVERS: A Chinese Education

by Peter Hessler

(Allen & Unwin, $39.99)

Hessler moved to Fuling, a town in southwestern China where the Wu and Yangtze rivers meet, in 1996 to teach at a teachers' college. In his first memoir, River Town, he describes how most students were the first from their extended families to attend university and in many cases their parents were illiterate.

In 2019, he returned to China as a teacher, this time to Sichuan University in Chengdu, also in the southwest and also on the banks of a river, the Fu. There, he taught a nonfiction class, with texts including George Orwell's Animal Farm, which the increasingly dystopian system didn't seem to mind.

This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM NEW ZEALAND LISTENERView all
First-world problem
New Zealand Listener

First-world problem

Harrowing tales of migrants attempting to enter the US highlight the political failure to fully tackle the problem.

time-read
3 mins  |
September 9, 2024
Applying intelligence to AI
New Zealand Listener

Applying intelligence to AI

I call it the 'Terminator Effect', based on the premise that thinking machines took over the world.

time-read
2 mins  |
September 9, 2024
Nazism rears its head
New Zealand Listener

Nazism rears its head

Smirky Höcke, with his penchant for waving with a suspiciously straight elbow and an open palm, won't get to be boss of either state.

time-read
2 mins  |
September 9, 2024
Staying ahead of the game
New Zealand Listener

Staying ahead of the game

Will the brave new world of bipartisanship that seems to be on offer with an Infrastructure Commission come to fruition?

time-read
4 mins  |
September 9, 2024
Grasping the nettle
New Zealand Listener

Grasping the nettle

Broccoli is horrible. It smells, when being cooked, like cat pee.

time-read
3 mins  |
September 9, 2024
Hangry? Eat breakfast
New Zealand Listener

Hangry? Eat breakfast

People who don't break their fast first thing in the morning report the least life satisfaction.

time-read
3 mins  |
September 9, 2024
Chemical reaction
New Zealand Listener

Chemical reaction

Nitrates in processed meats are well known to cause harm, but consumed from plant sources, their effect is quite different.

time-read
4 mins  |
September 9, 2024
Me and my guitar
New Zealand Listener

Me and my guitar

Australian guitarist Karin Schaupp sticks to the familiar for her Dunedin concerts.

time-read
2 mins  |
September 9, 2024
Time is on my side
New Zealand Listener

Time is on my side

Age does not weary some of our much-loved musicians but what keeps them on the road?

time-read
7 mins  |
September 9, 2024
The kids are not alright
New Zealand Listener

The kids are not alright

Nuanced account details how China's blessed generation has been replaced by one consumed by fear and hopelessness.

time-read
4 mins  |
September 9, 2024