2016 Reflective Journal 1: Youths in China & USA

How different are the current generations of youth in China and the United States? (China's "Me Generation" "Millennials" in the USA)

These youths share some common similarities but in my opinion, the Me Generation in China and Millennials in the USA have distinct differences.

In the globalising world, the youths are becoming more tech-savvy and immersed in the digital age. They use social media like Facebook to express their thoughts and opinions carefully. However, as a result, they become more antisocial and lack the ability to build human relationships well with others. In the article “China’s Me Generation” by Simon Elegant, it clearly shows the wide variety of electronic devices that the youths use for work such as iPods, computers and the latest model smartphone. “While she phones a colleague, the dinner-table conversation moves on to snowboarding to relative merits of various iPods to sudden onrush of credit cards in China.” This shows that they keep themselves up to date and learn to use these technology to their own benefits, neglecting management of the relationships they have with others. This is again reiterated in the Beijing Review article by Li Li, where it mentions that education in China cause youths to “rarely care about other people’s feelings and cause psychological handicaps”. Thus, we can see how being tech savvy may cause these youths more harm than good. Similarly, for the US Millennials, it is mentioned that they are “too happy at home checking Facebook”, such that they delayed getting their driver’s license. Hence, the evolution of technology in both countries have been significant, but they also have caused certain problems to arise, creating a cause of worry for the older generations with regards to the future of the country.

The youths in both countries also face similar problems when growing up, due to the rapid advancement of globalisation. The problem of unemployment has been a pertinent issue in both countries. Chinese university graduates who coincidentally fall into the “Me Generation” are finding it more difficult to be employed by white-collar jobs. Since the youths become increasingly dependent on their parents, they become spoiled and are unable to be self-sufficient. In the article ‘Beijing Review’ by Li Li, it shows that the “social stratum of youths live off their parents”. University graduates are complaining that jobs were “poorly paid or too boring”, hence quitting the job and being NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training.) Thus, the problem of unemployment comes as a serious problem which may affect China’s economy in years to come where people cannot accept jobs which they think are too demanding for them. Similarly in the US, there is an increase in unemployment as well. They have become “Generation Why Bother” according to an article “The Go-Nowhere Generation” by Buchholz. The youths do not dare to take risks and “hang on to lousy jobs”. They do not work hard to get the jobs they want. Hence, most of them end up unemployed after a while as they felt that they could not do the job properly. Thus, the problem of unemployment is prevalent in both countries and cannot be solved in a short time.

However, the differences between the generations of youths in China and USA seem to be more significant and vital towards building a better world.

Since the world is ever changing and evolving, we have to constantly keep up and upgrade ourselves too. These youths in China are pursuing materialistic gains in order to benefit themselves whereas those in USA are more idealistic. In the article “China’s Me Generation” by Simon Elegant, the youths “drink Starbucks, wear Nikes, blog excessively” and place material objects top in their wishlist like “a Nintendo Wii comes way ahead of democracy”. In addition, they have a “growing obsession with consumerism, the Internet and video games”. As the name suggests, the Me Generation in China are very self-centred as they are only conscious of themselves, placing their self interest above most other things. Hence, as a result, they pursue more materialistic gains to satisfy their interests. However, this is due to the one-child policy in China, where people are only allowed to give birth to a single child during the 80s period. This results in helicopter parenting and the parents would pamper their children with whatever they want. When the children grow up to become the Me Generation, they would undoubtedly develop the self-centred mindset and pursue material gains. On the other hand, Millennials in the USA are more idealistic and want a minimalistic lifestyle. They began to live lives that were fulfilled not through material objects, but through positive mental health. Instead of spending their money on expensive clothes, technology and an impressive mortgage, they searched for freedom by abandoning the things they felt were bringing them down. They embrace change and see the bigger picture, becoming more aware of what’s going on and trying to change it. They are “diverse” as stated in ‘Save Us, Millennials’ by Timothy Egan. Thus, there is a difference in the aspirations of youths in the different countries.

The generations of youth are different in their involvement and opinions on politics in their respective countries. China’s Me Generation is less interested in politics and are less involved as they feel that they is not a need to, further showing their self centred mindset. In the article China’s Me Generation by Simon Elegant, it mentions that youths feel that “nothing we can do about politics”, justifying their stance. They have “little interest in demanding voting rights, let alone overthrowing the country’s communist rulers”. Hence, the youths in China would most probably let the political situation rest for the future. The reason for this is that the youths simply do not care. When they are told about politics, they are put off and would rather pursue materialistic gains. They have a shift in priorities and would put their self interests first in front of anything else. With better education, they put their minds into trying to create things that they deem successful. Hence, they display not much interest in politics. This could be detrimental to China’s future as the Me Generation would come into power soon. It would be critical to maintain the vision of a better future for China in the few years to come in the globalising world. With the self centred mindset, China has to come up with solutions to save its future if this persists, being a conservative state forever. On the other hand, Millennials in the USA are more involved and concerned with the political situation in the country. In the article Save Us, Millennials by Timothy Egan, it mentions that the youths are a “great, renewable resource for vibrant democracy”, showing that they could be developed to lead the country to greater heights in the future. Moreover, the youths also participated actively in the Presidential Election in 2008, “giving their hearts to Obama”. This is beneficial, considering the youths have undergone better education than older generations and are smarter when it comes to certain situations. The Millennials are known as “confident, connected and open to change”, hence this shows that they have indeed identified issues with regards to the political situation, and would want to change it. They are able to understand multiple perspectives in a wide variety of issues such as the LGBT community and immigration. Millennials are able make independent decisions that shape their future. Hence, there is a stark contrast between youth involvement in politics in both China and the USA.

In conclusion, there are indeed many similarities and differences between the “Me Generation” in China and the “Millennials” in the USA. It is important that the youths realise the crucial role they play in their respective countries for the future. With the similarities and differences, perhaps youths from both countries could come together and discuss possible solutions to potential problems, unleashing their full potential of what they have in common. As for differences, both generations of youth could observe and learn from the other party, hence improving their own generation, which in turn would help their country secure a better future. The Me Generation and Millennials are vital in paving the road to success for each of their countries, as they would soon be leaders. Therefore, the generations of youths must stand up and do something to improve the current situation themselves, if not the countries would be doomed for the future.

References:
Mr Karplus' articles and CDE Wikispace

Reflective Journal 2: Management Consultant Project Reflections

During our CDE lessons for weeks 3 and 4, we were supposed to present a group project presentation on a management consultant scenario. My group consisted of myself, Gao Yang, Ming Chuan and Yi Kun. After much deliberation, we decided to help a company called Meizu. Meizu is 1 of the top 10 smartphone manufacturers in China and expanded into the smartphone market in 2008. Meizu has set up HK branch in 2011 to explore potential global marketing.

After analysis, we realised that Meizu not trusted and known by the US consumers. US consumers have a sort of stereotyping concept that China products are of low quality. They would rather support the Home team which mainly are the competitors of Meizu e.g. Apple. Apple and Google are constantly improving themselves to suit customers’ needs, gaining their trust. Furthermore, Meizu has lack of support outside China. We also came up with some solutions to the problems.

• Meizu should set up a headquarters in the US. 
• Meizu should work with the telcos in the US to make their phones more popular through advertising and campaigning,. e.g. AT&T, Verizon. 
• Meizu should hire people in the US and have better working benefits like Google. 
• Meizu should be unique (e.g. own operating system). 

As a presenter, I felt that we were one of the better groups who had really did our best. We had indeed spent a lot of time and effort into the presentation, trying to express our knowledge and thoughts. However, the audience was not really attentive and quite restless. Some people were focusing more on their electronic devices, most probably doing last minute work. I felt sad that most of the people were not listening to our presentation. Isn't it basic respect or courtesy to give the people who were presenting your fullest attention? After the presentation, we had room for improvement such as the solutions were not detailed enough and the target audience.

As part of the audience, I thought that some of the presentations are very well prepared and the presenters were enthusiastic about the presentations too. I must also admit that the sometimes the presentations are quite boring too as they were either too wordy or too long. Group 1 presented on Youku Tudou. They had analysed all 4 companies including YouTube which is Youku Tudou's main competitor if it expanded to the US market. However, their group mentioned only brief details of their suggestions. Group 2 presented on WeChat. Their presentation was short and sweet and had really good in-depth analysis on the company. However, I would like to point out one of their suggestions was flawed. They mentioned that they should hire the employees from rivals in China, but isn't that poaching? Group 3 presented on Li Ning. I felt that their presentation had also a good analysis of the company. Their suggestions were quite brief. Their 'Great Plan' was very good plan and estimated the problems and challenges that Li Ning might face and also come up with predictions as to when it would break into the US market, etc. Group 4 presented on Geely. Their group was the last group to present therefore it was rather plain except for the fact that they handled the Q & A session very well and all my doubts were answered. Group 5 did on Qihoo. I liked the design of their slides. The unique part was when they had a demonstration of the company's product and showed us through. Their way of engaging the audience was better than the rest of the groups. Group 7 did on XTEP. Their presentation was quite unclear and I had to ask them some questions after their presentation. They did not mention how to improve the design and what they define by creative if there was a test for it. Group 8 did on Baidu. I was already very familiar with Baidu thus the group did fine. They did not address the publicity issue.

In conclusion, I feel that I have indeed benefited from the presentations a lot and learnt more about the different Chinese companies that I have heard from. I feel that Chinese companies would find it difficult to expand to the US market mainly because of this 'China Firewall'. The government does not really approve of the companies' expansion as they feel that China is already the best and also did not want influence from the West, therefore resulting in a very conservative Chinese market. However, the US market is much more free and easy. Overall, I feel that the presentations were also quite good however it would be better if the audience gave more respect to the speakers. In the future, I hope to have more of such activities but with a better environment.

Reflective Journal 1: CDE Course Thoughts & Reflections

The first 2 lessons of my Cultural Differentiation Elective (CDE) have been amazing and quite interesting. I have finally broke free from my usual and boring lower secondary humanities which were quite dry. I don't mean to say that they were boring but Humanities are always very dry and I just have to get used to it. Geography and History for the past two years were fine and okay. However, since I have applied for CSE-BSP, I have thus taken a fresh new start and a new Integrated Humanities Elective (IHE) which is the Cultural Differentiation Elective. I hope to have a fun and joyous journey in this year learning this new elective!

In our first lesson, Mr Karplus, our CDE teacher, roughly showed us our SOW or our syllabus. He showed us our CDE wiki and some case studies we were going to look at.  For example, the topic titled "Dichotomy between China and the USA" looked interesting as I thought how do China and the USA differ exactly and many more questions. It would answer all of my questions and get a deeper insight into the topic.

Then, Mr Karplus started the first lesson asking as what we thought CDE was about. We all had different views to the subject, but had a similar concept of what the subject was about. He also showed us the differences between the West and the East, showing us Google searches if he searched American Culture and Chinese Culture respectively. The search results were quite stereotyped. For example, American Culture revealed pictures of hamburgers and the US flag, while Chinese Culture revealed ancient art and calligraphy. Mr Karplus then went on to show us the differences between Chinese and American values. For example, American values include consistent persistence, success emphasis, work for work's sake, efficiency and practicality, Science & Technology, progress, material comfort, humanitarianism, freedom, democracy, equality, racism and group superiority. I was quite shocked to learn all these values as most of them were quite different from the Chinese values we were taught when we were young. For example, the education in the West was much lax than the education in the East. Young people in the West were allowed romantic love while the young people in the East are more restricted in terms of relationships. I felt that it was quite amazing as I had learnt so much just attending the first lesson. Moreover, my peers had also asked intelligent questions in which the whole class benefited from. The East and the West have similar and different values at the same time.

In our second lesson, we started our first case study on "Google Way". Mr Karplus showed us 2 videos of Google. I would expect such a famous and big company to have long and tiring working hours, heavy workload and stress but surprisingly, it was not! I was stunned to realise that the Google workers have freedom and relaxation. They have a lot of facilities for the workers in order to come up with ideas for the company. For instance, Google had many cafeterias for the workers to have their meals, massage rooms, swimming pools and almost all the 'relax' facilities in the world. However, I know that life couldn't be so good in Google so I took the video with a pinch of salt. Google has planned to make the workers happy. Even the long queues Google is deliberately having in their cafeterias. All these facilities provided and benefits has a motive to it which is to get the employees to mingle so as to share their latest ideas to come up with something new. This is a ingenious way of getting their employees to perform to the best of their ability, with emphasis on quality over quantity. The second video was a more perceptive video in the sense that it not so much focused on the benefits of Google, but however had more interviews of the high ranking positions people such as the CEO of Google and basically all about Google. It had certainly differed from the first video as this video was more on the neutral side.

Overall, the first few lessons have been thought-provoking and interesting, and I definitely look forward to more lessons in the future.