China’s Millennials: The Want Generation with Eric Fish

The China Institute in American presents an Author Talk with Eric Fish, who will discuss his recently published work, China’s Millennials.

In 1989, students marched on Tiananmen Square demanding democratic reform. The Communist Party responded with a massacre, but it was jolted into restructuring the economy and overhauling the education of its young citizens. A generation later, Chinese youth are a world apart from those who converged at Tiananmen. Brought up with lofty expectations, they’ve been accustomed to unprecedented opportunities on the back of China’s economic boom. But today, China’s growth is slowing and its demographics rapidly shifting, with the boom years giving way to a painful hangover.

Join us on Tuesday, November 3, for an Author Talk with Eric Fish, who will discuss his recently published work, China’s Millennials. In the book, Eric Fish, a millennial himself, profiles youth from around China to show how they are navigating the education system, the workplace, divisive social issues, and a resurgence in activism. Based on interviews with scholars, journalists, and hundreds of young Chinese, his engrossing book challenges the idea that today’s youth have been pacified by material comforts and nationalism. Following rural Henan students struggling to get into college, a computer prodigy who sparked a nationwide patriotic uproar, and young social activists grappling with authorities, Fish deftly captures youthful struggle, disillusionment, and rebellion in a system that is scrambling to keep them in line—and, increasingly, scrambling to adapt when its youth refuse to conform.

Author Bio:
Eric Fish lived in China from 2007 to 2014 as a teacher, student, and journalist. After teaching for three years in Nanjing and getting his Master’s degree at Tsinghua University, he worked for the Economic Observer in Beijing and wrote on Chinese politics, social issues, and education for outlets including Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, The Diplomat, and The Telegraph. He also founded the blog sinostand.com and the China Hang-up podcast. For his book, China’s Millennials: The Want Generation, he spoke with hundreds of diverse Chinese youth born in the 1980s and 1990s to explore how people of this generation are navigating the enormous socioeconomic and political shifts unfolding in their country. Fish currently works as a content producer at Asia Society in New York.

For questions or to register by phone, please contact Aaron Nicholson 212-744-8181, ext. 138 or anicholson@chinainstitute.org

Register here.