China Cultural Changes: The Rise of Generation Y

Since the cultural revolution of 1968 in China and the opening policy of Deng Xiaoping in 1978, the moral values of the Chinese society have dramatically changed and a new generation appeared. Tocqueville, a political scientist of the 19^th century said “Each generation is a new society coming to life”. This quotation perfectly applies to the Generation Y in China, which defines those born after 1980’s (Faure, 2013) and represent about 50% of the country's current working-age population. As part of the actual Chinese culture, Generation Y reflects the influence of the globalization of the country, and how the behavior of this part of the population influences the way to do business in China today and in the future. In this article, I will define what the Generation Y is, and then I will explain the particularities of this new culture growing in China.

The “one-child policy” and the economical boom in the last thirty years in China have brought to the post-80’s generation a constant period of prosperity and stability that they have only experienced. This context full of opportunities and success made the Generation Y more confident, pride and self-assured that those new changes are the right way to do things. As this new generation is coming into the actual workforce, it is also more exposed to the Western Culture, and this is influencing the traditional values of the Chinese society and the actual corporate culture (Huang, 2013). Moreover, the Generation Y is characterized by a new way of thinking, they pay a bigger attention to themselves, and they listen to what they want instead of what their parents want, or their bosses want or any authoritarian figure that used to have a crucial impact on their opinion in the past. The Generation Y being a result of the “one-child policy” they had the chance to be well-educated and intellectually stimulated at an early aged, which make them more creative and independent in the workplace than the previous generation, but on the other side, they tend to be professionally instable if the working environment is not matching their needs (creative, challenging, stimulating…), they can change of company or job more easily than in the past, which is a loss of young managers for the companies. “Generation Y don’t just want to execute orders, they want to participate in decision making” (quotation from Ning LU, China business director of InclusionINC). Consequently, companies are trying to adapt to this new generation by improving the workplace and offering more responsibilities in order to keep those employees interested as they also make companies evolve in the business place (Murphy, 2013).

When going to China, people often have the preconceived idea of a communist country with a group-oriented population, but the recent changes that China encountered had given birth to several changes in the culture, particularly noticed in the Generation Y.  An new aspect of the Chinese culture is quickly noticed when you start talking with the population, it is the general Individualism that characterizes the young people of Generation Y. They put their own needs and wants first in the workplace, as I explained earlier, but also in the daily life. Other examples of individualism can be observed while living in China such as people not paying attention to a person in need (steal, aggression…), crowd moves very frequent in order to be the first in a store, in a train…The rise of the Chinese economy in those last year made appear families where the child make a salary twenty times higher than what their parents make. This situation reconsiders the traditional family hierarchy model, and which leads to individualism. Another fact that illustrates this new trend is the increasing number of divorce in the country which indicates that people are according more importance to their individual needs and priorities (Faure, 2013).

Another aspect of the change in the Chinese culture is the money-oriented behavior. It became a major concern for the population to show external signs of wealth as part of a basic social recognition. They have an obsession with acquiring material values such as cars, apartments, luxury goods… This quest for social recognition can be analyses as a search for status, in a time where in less than 30 years the number of billionaire went from 0 to 130 in 2009 (Pierre, 2010). The rapid economic growth of the country gave to  part of the population, higher resources that they never had before, as Chinese people being short-term oriented, that could explain this tendency to spend their money in material goods in order to show-of their rapid success.

I will conclude this article by arguing that even though the young generation is changing to a more individualist behavior, the concept of family remains important for the Generation Y, and their success and gains will always be shared their kin, which is not always the case in the Western culture.

Ophélie

SOURCES:

Faure, G. O. (2013). CHINA: NEW VALUES IN A CHANGING SOCIETY. Récupéré sur China Europe International Business School (CEIBS): http://www.ceibs.edu/ase/Documents/EuroChinaForum/faure.htm

Huang, J. (2013). China's Generational Cultural Change. Récupéré sur Connect East: http://www.connecteast.net/blog/chinas-generational-cultura.html

Murphy, C. (2013, October 2). How Gen Y Is Changing Office Culture in China. Récupéré sur China Real Time: http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/10/02/gen-y-is-changing-office-culture-in-china/

Pierre. (2010, February 12). Les nouveaux riches de l’empire chinois. Récupéré sur Chine Croissance: http://www.chinecroissance.com/economie/les-nouveaux-riches-de-lempire-chinois.html