Opinion

A century on from the May Fourth protests, Chinese youths are in a state of crisis

China’s young people, once at the forefront of politics, are increasingly disenfranchised, and part of a worrying generational gap as a result of the nation’s unprecedented cultural and economic development

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Young people were a regular part of the political vanguard until the late 1980s, when activism was perceived to be threatening stability and undermining market reforms. Photo: AFP

Josef Gregory Mahoney is professor of politics and international relations at East China Normal University and a senior research fellow with the Institute for the Development of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics at Southeast University, and the Hainan CGE Peace Development Foundation.

Published: 2:00pm, 4 May 2019Updated: 2:00pm, 4 May 2019

A century has passed since Chinese youths led their fellow citizens onto the streets to protest against the Treaty of Versailles for awarding Shandong to Japan. The May Fourth Movement was a watershed moment in China’s effort to become a modern nation and inaugurated a tradition of Chinese youths in the political vanguard, since discontinued.

Given that May 4 is also celebrated as Youth Day in China, it is proper to ask: what is the state of Chinese youths today?

Armed with statistics from Chinese sources, the picture that emerges suggests that many — primarily those born in the 1990s and 2000s, the first to grow up in China’s market society — are in a growing state of crisis and social disaffection. China’s unprecedented cultural and economic development has created generational gaps that many consider to be the widest in modern times, along with a bevy of problems.