A survey of over 12,000 people between 18 and 30 in 27 different countries found that China’s millennials are among the world’s most optimistic.
The SCMP reports:
Asked which country would drive the world economy in the next years, 58 per cent pointed to China and only 31 per cent chose the US, currently the largest economy worldwide. China could overtake the US as soon as 2016, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said in a report in March.
Almost all of the young adults surveyed in China, 93 per cent, said they were optimistic their country’s best days were still ahead. In South Korea, only 77 per cent expressed the same sentiment. In India, 81 per cent did.
Two-thirds of the Chinese millennials said they believed they had an opportunity to become an entrepreneur in their country.
Only one-third of the Chinese millennials surveyed said their country did not represent their values and beliefs.
Chinese millennials were, however, not blindly bullish about their future. Two-thirds thought that technological progress widens the wealth gap.
Almost twice as many Chinese millennials, 67 per cent, said climate change was “a pressing issue” than their American counterparts did. Concern among the Chinese surveyed ranked higher than anywhere else but in Latin America.
Asian Millennials Infographic (via Telefonica):
This survey confirms the notion that the focus of the global development is shifted to Asia.
I don't know why everyone puts so much emphasis on driving ecomonic growth to such a nauseating degree. You still can't take back the pollution and other damage it has wrought here, which significantly takes away from the quality of life. The US is supposed to be the superpower now, but I would never make the argument that we have a better life than people in Switzerland or Canada. So what's the point? The inidividual isn't the one who benefits the most anyway, what's there to be optimistic about?
They are optimistic because they believe the pollution is a temporary phenomenon which will be curbed and eradicated when the country shifts its priority and take care of these issues.
Or maybe like you, because they are too short- sighted to realise the “temporary phenomenon” has permanent effects to both the human body and the environment. Or perhaps they are all planning to emigrate, like so many of their cuntrymen
You DO realize that pollution is temporary in the since that it only lingers say, oh about 100 years right? LA [has] an air pollution problem that they aggresively started to tackle like 50-70 years ago and it STILL fails to meet the United State's air quality standards.
You know what a bad-air day in LA is like? Try an AQ index of about 20-50. Most people in Chinese cities would kill for an AQ index around that number. How long do you think it will take cities like Beijing to improve considering the AQ index regularly breaks 500 in the winter? Centuries? Eons? And don't even get me started on water and soil pollution. These problems will linger well until even these graduates' grandkids are dead.
So, again, no optimism here.
Don't know why my post showed up as a reply to Mat, should have been directed at Shuami.
The city I am living posted an AQ of 1430 last winter. Ive been here ten years, and decided that last winter will indeed be my last. I guess life is only temporary too, so the 1 million or so Chinese who die prematurely because of pollution should console themselves with that
There are two things that are being discussed there. One is the pollution itself. It is bad, super bad. People are choking and dying from it. However, “Almost twice as many Chinese millennials, 67 per cent, said climate change was “a pressing issue” than their American counterparts did. Concern among the Chinese surveyed ranked higher than anywhere else but in Latin America.”
This indicates that the people are keenly aware of the environmental issues, rather than being “short-sighted” about them, at least at this juncture. The second point, the one that I was trying to emphasize, is that the same people is optimistic and confident that the country will tackle the problems promto, through the effort of government planning, reshuffle of priorities, enforcing stricter laws, etc. and grass-root vigilante. This is the difference here (between the Chinese millennials and their counter-part in other countries)–they duely believe in their govt AND themselves that the problems will be resolved, sooner rather than later.
LA still has the smog problem–that's because the solution they have only address part of the problems–the gas they use in the cars, but not rest of the problems–number of cars on the street. So the problem is not how long it takes to tackle it, it is what and how you choose to tackle it. Remember Beijing during the 2008 Olympics? How long did it take to clear the skies then? Of course those were very short term solutions. It will take much, much more effort to achieve a long term solution. But it shows that pollution can be eradicated. The result will be proportional to the effort you put in. Yes, some life are already lost or ruined, but most of the environmental damages can be reversed. And we are focusing the lives of the FUTURE generations here.