Gen-C

Lacking our Western goody-two-shoes sole-trader God and also a period of an Enlightenment, and retarded by the Cultural Revolution, our Chinese colleagues aren’t really up to the Indivuation stage of self-reflection.

This is to say, in the main, they look to the perceptions of people around them and society in general to validate their self worth. Just like the ancient Romans.

This is why it appears so easy for western brand companies to market to the Chinese. All they have to do is focus on the opinions of others, as impacted by the ownership of, for example, a particular handbag or car.

As in ‘if you drive around in this Jaguar everyone will think you are very wealthy and very successful’, quite independently of what fraction of your wealth went on the purchase, or whether there are other things worth valuing in life other than money.

Confucianism emphasized many humanistic elements such as the importance of the family, the cultivation of virtue, self-improvement and the maintenance of ethics. The Cultural Revolution pretty much killed off the latter three of these and left the family unit, along with money, as the key focus of the Chinese mind.

So where to from here?

Considering that there are up to 6 adults for each child and that the little buggers are spoiled rotten up until an age where they realise with horror that they are on the hook for supporting all of their elders, my guess is the Chinese youth will fast-track past the Western Gen-Y’s into Post-Indivuation.

This will be needed as a survival tactic. Especially when the Chinese economic bubble bursts, which it will. And it will be a big bubble burst because collectively they will really believe that all is lost, because they all believe it.

The symptoms that will help identify the Gen-C’s (which is what I have decided to call the Chinese youngsters that push through to post-Individuation) will be as follows …

1. They will care not for the opinion of others (primarily because they won’t be listening)
2. They will not judge themselves in any way at all (helped along by all that spoiling in their early lives)
3. They will retreat further into a virtual world with the smartphone being their major gateway to heaven
4. They will either be very skinny from not eating, or very fat from subsistence on Western junk food
5. In their virtual worlds there will only be ‘likes’ and ‘comments’ and no detrimental references will be allowed, further assuring them that all is OK
6. They will be confused by their angry parents and grand-parents always shouting at them. But they will be practiced in the art of recalcitrance