Youths object that they have heavy burdens of their own, from the gaokao university-entrance exam to bleak job prospects and unaffordable housing. In Beijing and Shanghai, average house prices are 23 times median incomes, twice the ratio in London. That is a source of particular anxiety for young men, because home-ownership is often seen as a prerequisite for marriage. Youngsters worry about the burden of caring for ageing parents, since China has few nursing homes and pensions are low. When asked in surveys to name their greatest source of happiness, having healthy parents comes second to having a stable income.

年輕人反駁說自己也有沉重的負擔：從高考到黯淡的工作前景，再到買不起的房子。北京和上海的平均房價是收入中位數的23倍，是倫敦這一比例的兩倍。這尤其給年輕人造成了焦慮，因為擁有住房常常被視為結婚的先決條件。年輕人也擔心要承擔照顧老去的父母的重擔，因為中國的養(yǎng)老院很少，養(yǎng)老金也低。當在調查中被問到幸福感主要源于何處時，他們把父母身體健康列在僅次于有穩(wěn)定收入的位置。

Much young resentment comes from a sense of having lost out on both the boom years and the government’s former largesse. A widely shared joke encapsulates this: “The state gave houses to our parents, and now we pay for them; it raised the retirement age when we started working; the stockmarket crashed as we started buying; and when we thought we could enjoy being adults, the state told us to have a second child”. (In 2016 China introduced a two-child rule, reversing its one-child policy.) The rags-to-riches stories that captivated their parents’ generation feel distant.

年輕人的不滿有很大一部分源于他們既沒趕上經濟騰飛大潮，也沒享受到政府過去慷慨的福利制度。一個廣為流傳的段子對此做了一番總結：“過去父母分房，現在我們買房；我們工作了，退休延后了；我們進場了，股市崩盤了；終于可以歇口氣了，國家說生二胎吧。”(2016年中國逆轉了獨生子女政策，開始實行二胎政策。)白手起家的致富故事令他們的父母一代著迷，在他們聽來卻遙遠而陌生。

One way to cope is to vent about this. Millions share memes and jokes online that sum up their frustrations. A new favourite is neijuan, or “involution”, an academic term for the process when extra input no longer yields more output. Young people use it to describe the meaningless competition in which they take part, from the educational rat-race to the fight for a white-collar job. Office workers joke that they are dagong ren (primarily manual labourers) to deplore the monotony of their jobs. They are tired of working overtime and of China’s “996” regime, a work schedule of 9am to 9pm, six days a week, usually without extra pay.

一個應對的方式是發(fā)泄。成百上千萬人在網上分享總結這代人沮喪心境的表情包和段子。一個新的流行語是“內卷”——這個學術詞匯指的是額外投入已不再帶來更多產出的過程。年輕人用它來描述他們身處其中的毫無意義的競爭，從你死我活的學業(yè)競賽到爭搶一份白領工作。辦公室職員自嘲“打工人”來哀嘆工作的單調乏味。他們對加班和中國的“996”工作制感到厭倦。“996”指從上午九點工作到晚上九點，一周六天，通常沒有加班費。

As disillusionment sets in, young people question Chinese societal norms. Many tune into Qipa Shuo, a hit debating show. Its topics range from, “Should I stay in a city to pursue my career even if the air is polluted?” and “A job I like requires me to work ‘996’: should I quit?” to, “Would you choose to be an unmarried mother?” and “Is it a waste for a highly educated woman to be a full-time housewife?” Among fans the debate often continues, online and offline, after each episode.

隨著幻想破滅，年輕人開始質疑社會常規(guī)。許多人收看大熱辯論節(jié)目《奇葩說》。它的辯題涉及各種社會問題，比如：“奮斗城市污染嚴重，走嗎？”“感興趣的工作總是996，我該不該886？”“是你，會不會做單身媽媽？”“高學歷女生做全職太太是浪費嗎？”每期節(jié)目播完，忠實觀眾們常常在線上線下繼續(xù)爭論。

Such themes reflect rapidly changing mindsets. A survey asking jiulinghou about dating and marriage found that more than half were happy to rent their homes as newlyweds. Seven in ten singletons said income was not the most important criterion in choosing a partner. Most said that the basis of marriage was a life shared by two like-minded people—a radical turn, considering that elders saw it as a contract between two sets of parents. In a society that for centuries held that a woman’s place was in the home, young mothers now increasingly reject old child-rearing norms.

這些議題反映出觀念模式的快速轉變。對90后約會和婚姻狀況的一項調查發(fā)現，超過一半人愿意租房結婚。七成單身人士表示在選擇伴侶時不會把收入狀況作為最重要的考量。大多數人說婚姻的基礎是兩個志同道合的人一起生活——這是一種根本性的轉變，鑒于老一輩把婚姻視為兩對父母之間的契約。在這個千百年來都認為女性的位置就是在家中的社會里，今天的年輕媽媽們越來越抗拒有關養(yǎng)兒育女的陳規(guī)舊習。