78.一切都化作空虚

运气是人类最美丽的语言。
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附：Washington and Lee University Johnson Scholarship申请附加文章

What do you believe is the most important issue that will face your generation in the coming years?

Generation is not only defined by time, but also space. Across the ocean, the Americans are now facing the solitude of being the leading power of the globe. The remaining smell of war and revolution still pervades Middle East and Latin America. Looking back at China, as one of the new Chinese generation, I see more than the mere ‘economic myth’, amongst which drastic gaps between different age groups and social classes will be the most important issue in the coming years.
For People’s Republic of China, the century is a century of revolution, resulting in huge changes in politics, economics and culture. After Mao’s era of Communist dream, China’s second leader Deng Xiaoping’s philosophy that “we should let some people get rich before others” led to the open policy and market economics, which contributed to the current China image to most foreigners: Shanghai, skyscrapers, Olympics, spacecraft, the forth biggest economic body…yet behind these postcard scenes, a HUGE GAP is undermining the new generation. For a generation, something is lost.
While the open policy brings in investment and opportunities, it also takes in dazzling cultures from Japan and the Western World. From the 80’ generation, we grow up with Doraemon, with Superman, Batman, Thisman and Thatman, and our parents knew nothing about them. The one-child policy somewhat deprives us of chances to learn how to interact and share with others in childhood. We become more isolated than our fathers, not knowing what to say to a stranger. The intense competition for Gaokao (College Entrance Exam) with an admission rate of less than 50% and teachers and parents also exert pressures on 10 millions of students each year. Many fear or are despised for not getting a good mark. Many cannot show their characters and talents. Many just wonder the meaning of studying for scores. Naturally they seek ‘personal freedom’ in cartoons and computer games, and defined themselves with a Japanese word ‘OTAKU’ for ‘home’, meaning they lack the passion for their job, spend most time in fantasy, and seldom get out to participate in the society.
In this way, gaps gradually form, not only between individuals in the new generation, but also between parents and us. Many parents are too busy earning a good material life to care for their children, and many just have no sense what their children were .talking about. From them, children do not or cannot feel love. Little communication makes it easy for them to do things in extreme ways, just like in stories. The end is the rising number of teenager crimes. THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE lies in the future, when the ‘home generation’ gets on the stage to run the nation. INSUFFICIENT EXPOSURE TO SOCIETY AND LACK OF SOCIAL SKILLS WILL BE THE 2 BIGGEST CHALLENGES, AND ALL RESULTS MENTIONED ABOVE WILL BE EXACERBATED.
Gaps will be a challenge, and the most demanding task to crack down. It is the truth of a country that cannot be concealed by media, waiting to be filled with the sand of understanding.