By DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW
So as President Hu Jintao prepares to head to the United States next week for a state visit that many hope will improve badly strained ties, Americans from President Barack Obama to ordinary citizens might wonder what drives Chinese people — especially those born after 1980 who will be moving into positions of influence and wealth around the time the shift may take place.
There’s still a way to go. China’s economy is roughly a third the size of the United States’ $15 trillion. But based on high growth rates in China and low growth in the United States, The Economist magazine estimates the shift may come as early as 2019. Goldman Sachs guesses 2027.
Ge Yang is an editor at Umiwi.com, a Beijing-based Web site for and about China’s “post-’80s” generation, those born in the decade after China’s economic and social liberalization began.
First of all, she says, the majority of post-’80s — especially those in big cities and with decent jobs — don’t envy the United States its material wealth.
“We have all the material things here that America has, like iPhones, which are really, really loved here,” said Ms. Ge, a petite, eager-faced 26-year-old. “We can get the best of all their goods, so that’s not an issue.
“But we can’t do what they do culturally: produce things like Tom and Jerry cartoons, ‘Transformers,’ ‘Avatar,’ ‘Inception,’ iPhones, Barbies. America has things we really, really like, on a cultural level.”
The post-’80s are China’s first only-child generation, and they happily admit they are prone to selfishness. Yet, generally, they are also searching their souls, conscious of their historical mission in pointing their country toward a better future and away from the ideology-driven violence and poverty of the past.
After the tradition-smashing Communist politics of the first three decades of the People’s Republic, and three further decades of breakneck economic growth that has destroyed some of the country’s environment and cultural heritage, China’s young adults are searching for values and moral meaning, said Ms. Ge, who studied Chinese literature at Beijing Normal University.
“We are not ideological. We are patriotic, we are nationalistic. But then, who doesn’t love their country?” she asked rhetorically. “We’re not poor anymore, we enjoy life. We want a life with quality, with meaning, and not just a working life like our parents had.”
Ms. Ge’s work at the Web site brings her into daily contact with a broad range of opinion among the post-’80s. She predicts the next three decades will see people here pursuing the “Chinese Dream.”
“This is a big topic here right now,” she said. “It’s inspired by the American Dream, but different. Americans say you can build anything out of nothing. We believe that you can love your family and your country and return to your cultural roots, such as Confucius. So much was lost in the last 60 years.”
“We want to rejuvenate our values and find our soft power” as a nation, she said.
Dong Mushi, 29, is a project manager at a state-owned electricity company in Beijing. He’s never been to the United States but says he is far more positive about it than his parents, who, he says, see things through a political prism. Typically for his generation, his own view is shaped by quality of life issues, what he calls “true happiness.”
“My parents say the U.S. is trying to control the world with democratic ideology, but I don’t think so. I don’t like to judge any nation based only on politics. I prefer to see people’s real feelings about living in a country,” he said in an e-mail.
“To me, the U.S. is a country with the most advanced modern culture, a generous place where everyone, no matter where you’re from, can find a comfortable life, and I like that,” he said. “Maybe it’s because I’ve never been there, but I love it.”
Yang Li, 30, a law graduate from the southwestern city of Chongqing, left China in 2003 and now works in an administrative job at a Swedish university. Both she and Mr. Dong believe the United States is trying to slow or even stop China’s rise — a common belief among Chinese — but say that’s understandable.
“They’re using their ideology to lead the Western world,” Ms. Yang said in an e-mail. “That’s normal in the economy and in global politics, and China would do the same.”
Said Mr. Dong: “Any nation, if your competitor is growing so fast, of course you want to keep it down because you don’t know what it will do to you if you let it grow. I can totally understand this and don’t think they’re doing anything wrong.”
Ms. Yang, Mr. Dong and Ms. Ge all agree that just because China may overtake the United States in gross domestic product doesn’t mean it’ll feel like a rich place. China’s population is so big that they expect that on a per capita basis it will remain a developing country for a very long time, though with pockets of real wealth.
“Look at last year when China overtook Japan, it didn’t make us feel we were better than Japan. Our average income is still far below theirs,” said Ms. Ge.
Yet expectations are rising along with incomes, posing a major challenge to the government, and looking ahead, the post-’80s want more of a say in politics, she said.
“People want more competitive politics, to know something about the people who lead the country, to know that they are really excellent in quality like President Obama and not just bureaucrats whom we don’t know.
“Bad things happen in America too, but at least there is a system to supervise the people in power. Here, there is no one who can do this, and if we can’t monitor what the government is doing, there are so many challenges, like corruption, it will end badly.”
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