We’ve known for some time that Chinese parents are much too squeamish to discuss the finer points of sex with their kids, and that curious youths were resorting to learning about the birds and the bees from the internet, but now it looks as if some schools around the country are starting to pick up the slack. They are now offering sexual health classes to students - and not the creepy religious kind. more ›

What in the world is going on with Shanghai's youth? Just two days ago, one middle schooler stabbed another to death in a dispute that new evidence says started on the internet - and then yesterday, two middle school students injured each other in a knife fight on a playground in Jiading District. According to the police, a 16-year-old brought a knife to school and slashed a 14-year-old boy across the chest. The two later fought for the knife, and the 16-year-old also got cut. Sounds like its time to start up a Battle Royale program on Chongming Island or something! more ›

Here's a reason not to shut down those health websites: a recent survey from the Social Investigation Center of China Youth Daily found that 79% of Chinese youth find out their "sexual knowledge" from the Internet, compared to only 32% from school and 31% from parents. "There is a severe lack of formal sex education in China, so many teenagers turn to the Internet," one moderator of an online sex-ed forum said. Of note though: the survey was conducted online. more ›

What do people who grew up during the Cultural Revolution feel about youth who've grown up in the "Consumer Revolution"? Alec Ash over at The China Beat interviews two professors at Peking University and finds out the older generation is worried about their younger counterparts' "self-centeredness" and “psychologically vulnerable." So basically, the phrase "kids these days!" can be heard anywhere around the globe. more ›

While membership in the CCP is at its highest levels either, its actual members are a lot less naive and a lot more jaded about China's one party than you'd think. C. Custer posts interviews with several card carrying CCP members: young, well-educated and politically inclined, but who say things like "I don’t believe in anything in the history textbooks. It’s all lies." more ›

In case you didn't realize from the heightened rates of diabetes, cancer and obesity, but the physical condition of China's youth has been deteriorating. According to the country's National Physique Monitoring report, youth bodies have been on the decline for the past decade, with flexibility, "explosive strength," endurance, muscle power and vital capacities all sliding downwards. Yikes! Guess those morning exercises aren't as effective as you'd think. more ›

For the jaded among us who believe that all Chinese youth care for are money and material things, we have news for you: The 2010 Chinese Youth Green Values Report, launched by Shanghai-based sustainability consultancy Greennovate and youth-insights group enovate, shows that values among China's young are turning a shade greener. more ›

The plague of disaffected over-connected and really, really emo youth has hit China! A recent study on the country's post-90s (born after 1990) generation, done by the Shanghai Teenage Research Center, has found that many teens feel happier surfing the internet rather than spending time with family or friends. These kids claim they are "always misunderstood by society." One, a freshman in Changning, says he doesn't like hanging out with his parents because "I can't communicate with them effectively." Wow! Watch out Shanghai - next thing you know, they'll be writing bad poetry on their livejournal equivalents and worshipping movies like Thirteen... and then they'll be virtually indistinguishable from American teens. more ›

• While young Chinese are modernizing, they aren't in the way the Western world would think. [Business Week]
• Bill Gates talks about joining Twitter and what he thinks about China. [Mashable]
• As much as we disparage it, the quality of Chinese made products are in fact getting better and better every day. [China Law Blog]

John Solomon (@johnwrede) is founder and director of enoVate a youth-focused insights and design agency based in Shanghai. enoVate works with clients and agencies to better understand and develop creative solutions targeted at the Chinese Youth market. Joey Dembs (@j_forest) is a researcher and insights guru at enoVate. more ›

China spends a significant amount of its online time gaming: each and every of the many internet cafes around the country are filled around the clock with gamers desperately clicking their mice at fantastical MMORPG opponents, or mashing their keyboards in an attempt to master the latest Dance Dance Revolution spin off. But some games are more popular than others, especially the ones that have spawned from social media sites: pretty much everyone in China either plays Happy Farm (or has a Happy Farm in reality), or knows about it. But what other games have become popular over the past year? more ›

China’s Ministry of Health recently denied the existence of so-called ‘internet addiction’ as a problem for Chinese youth. You heard correctly- the ‘land of a thousand internet-addiction camps’ is apparently conflicted over whether to electrocute the problem out of its children or to simply ignore it entirely. more ›

Back when we were wee little children, we watched Nickelodeon's Guts with the same fanaticism our Gen-X uncles had for American Gladiators. The show, which pits kids against kids in a competitive sports arena was great for its messiness, its "safe" violence, and its schadenfreude (when that girl who looks a lot like the annoying kid in your math class falls off the giant yoga mat pyramid onto her face. ha!). We've grown up now, but we're happy to hear that millions of Chinese youth will be getting a taste of the childhood we remember - MTV's international division will be bringing Guts to China. Called 挑战小勇士 (tiaozhan xiaoyongshi), it'll allow Chinese kids their shot at athletic glory and humiliation on a giant foamy set, something the adults have been allowed to do for a while now. Source: Hollywood Reporter more ›