Xinhua News Agency, Tianjin, May 5 Title: Why does China's "Generation Z" prefer the "national tide"?
Xinhua News Agency
In late April, market research firm IDC released a ranking of smartphone sales in the Chinese market in the first quarter of 2022, with Chinese brands occupying the top three.
"The domestic mobile phone is cost-effective and the sense of use is good, and I can't think of a reason why I have to choose an imported brand." Wang Shan, a first-year university student in Tianjin, told reporters.
Behind the choice of smartphone brands is the changing perspective of the 260 million Chinese "Gen Z" group on the world.
Students from the Faculty of Intelligence and Computing at Tianjin University commission vehicle models in the sandbox classroom. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Ran
The confidence to vote with your feet
In the 1980s and 1990s, many Chinese cities spontaneously formed "going abroad news corners", where people exchanged all kinds of information about going abroad. This "going abroad boom" has been preserved in many film and television works to this day.
Today, 30 years later, this trend is gradually changing. According to the "2020 China Returnee Employment and Entrepreneurship Survey Report" released by the recruitment and job search information website Zhaopin Recruitment, in 2020, the number of international students returning to China to seek jobs increased by 67.3% year-on-year.
The contributor to this data is China's "Generation Z" born from 1995 to 2009. They are looking at the world with greater confidence, only because they are standing at a higher starting point – as the world's second largest economy, the average GDP of Chinese has exceeded $10,000 for two consecutive years, and absolute poverty has been eliminated...
Song Mengmeng, 26, went to the United States to study in 2017 and is now a network engineer at a leading Internet company in China. "Whether or not to study abroad or not, whether to return to China, in addition to personal choices, is also related to the country's development achievements." She said that in her major, more and more international students are choosing to return home.
More young Chinese have removed the "Western filter." For example, the Chinese bullet screen website Bilibili, with "Generation Z" as the main user, the video creator "Organic Society" has 860,000 fans, and its works with the theme of national self-confidence and self-improvement have hundreds of thousands to millions of views.
Xing Fei, 19, enjoys watching these videos. "As a 'post-00s', I am full of confidence and hope for the future of myself and my country." Xing Fei said.
Pride worn on the body
During this year's "May Day" holiday, Li Han, a junior college student, bought himself a pair of sneakers from the Chinese sports brand Li Ning.
"When I was in middle school, I only wore international brands, the style was good, and I had face when I wore it." Li Han said that now, he has become a fan of Li Ning, "especially 'Chinese Li Ning', the combination of Chinese elements and modern fashion is very beautiful." ”
In 2021, The total retail sales of consumer goods in China totaled 44.1 trillion yuan, which is already the world's second largest commodity consumption market, and the total trade in goods ranked first in the world for five consecutive years.
In April this year, the Jingdong Institute of Consumption and Industry Development released the "2022 Z Generation Consumption Index Report", showing that the "Z Generation", which has gradually become the backbone of consumption, has driven the prosperity of the "National Tide" economy, and since 2022, the sales volume of "Generation Z" to buy "China Red" element goods has increased by 326% year-on-year.
Original costume designer Mao Baobao's work was released at China International Fashion Week. Courtesy of respondents
Original clothing designer Mao Baobao said that CHICCO MAO, which is managed by him, is a women's clothing brand that focuses on oriental aesthetic elements, with monthly sales of about 25 million yuan, and "Generation Z" consumers are one of the main buyers of the brand. The price of brand ready-to-wear is not cheap, but Young people in China are willing to pay for it.
"The explosive growth of the national tide brand is not only a simple consumption phenomenon, but also a microcosm of the improvement of cultural self-confidence and the rise of China's great powers." Mao Baby said.
Self-reliance in the comments section
Ren Xiaoyu, a 27-year-old short video creator, has gradually found a sense of looking up at the world in the comment area of her works.
From the idyllic scenery to the modern "national tide", Ren Xiaoyu recorded and showed the life of Chinese youth with short videos. "In the past, when we watched foreign videos or novels without translation, we would always leave a message 'We need Chinese (we need Chinese)', but now foreign friends run to the bottom of our videos and write 'We need English' in Chinese."
In recent years, China's popular culture has taken steps from "passive input" to "equal dialogue". Brother Yunnan was invited to give a speech at Oxford University, Grandpa Amu's carpentry video was played more than 200 million times on overseas platforms, and the TV series "The Hidden Corner" achieved a good performance overseas...
Grandpa Amu shows the Luban lock in his carpentry video. (Video screenshot)
Ren Xiaoyu, who finished filming, would read a book, and with a "tick" sound, she had already paid for her favorite milk tea, and in less than 20 minutes, the milk tea was already in her hands. The convenient life and flexible employment mode under the blessing of mobile payment and tongda logistics make her live easier and more stable.
"The moon is the same round all over the world, isn't it?" Ren Xiaoyu said. (Some of the interviewees in the article are pseudonyms) (reporters Liang Jie, Guo Fangda, Zhang Yuqi, Wang Hui)