Taiwan Today

Skepticism about the younger generation is nothing new. Writing in about 700 B.C., the Greek poet Hesiod said "I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words. When I was a boy, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly knowing and impatient of restraint."

Generational conflict? T'was ever thus. Fast-forward 2,500 years from ancient Greece to modern high-tech Taiwan and little seems to have changed. The young people now under attack are known locally as the "strawberry generation," membership of which belongs to all those born after 1980.

The United States has spawned such terms as Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y, to describe those born in various decades aiming at the better identification of a distinct generational market segment so as to be able to cater more closely to its wants. This breakdown does not really cross over to Taiwan--although some of the traits associated with Generation Y are certainly shared by Taiwan's strawberry generation--if only because the great era of youthful rebellion in Western countries associated with the 1960s never really happened here. The result has been a great deal of continuity in aims and goals over the postwar generations--until now.

Chang Tse-kuan, CEO of Zimlite Co., a trading company, presents a picture of the typical strawberry generation member. "Karen, a 22-year-old employee in our marketing department, is a very self-centered person," he says. "She is often absent and she gives strange reasons for not coming to work. However, she is also very picky about how much she has made use of the company's welfare. Her colleagues and her supervisor think she's very creative, fastidious and demanding, but in practical terms she is not very capable. I think she just might not be working hard enough, or she just aims beyond her reach."

The overall impression is of someone with creativity and imagination but whose work-life balance is skewed heavily toward personal enjoyment at the expense of both their work ethic and even practical competence in their job. It is here that misgivings about the strawberry generation have become most intense.

In half a century Taiwan has moved from being one of Asia's poorest areas to a per capita GDP superior to many members of the European Union. This has been achieved by grueling hard work. Is the strawberry generation capable of picking up the torch? Are they tough enough and determined enough to build on the efforts of the parents and grandparents. Or are they pretty to look at but easily bruised, like the fruit they have been named after?

Origins

When the expression was first formulated 14 years ago by Christina Ongg, now chairperson of Career Consulting, it was not meant to be pejorative. "I created the term to describe those youngsters who had just entered the workforce who showed a number of common characteristics." Ongg says. "For example, they had good points such as being proactive and innovative, a willingness to challenge received wisdom, the ability to quickly absorb new things, independence and the ability to think their way through problems. And they also had bad points, for example, low EQ, low persistency, low sensitivity, low flexibility, and a high degree of self-centeredness."

Ongg says the reason she picked on strawberries was not because of the fruit's apparent delicacy, but rather because of its expense, the care needed for cultivation and its almost universal popularity. "The youngsters were like strawberries," says Ongg. "Strawberries are grown in environments full of care, love and time and these youngsters grew up in similar surroundings. They were given the best of everything by their parents."

Ongg says originally the term was used to describe people born in the 1970s, who were also known as "sixth grade students" having been born in the 60s according to the Republic of China calendar (which dates everything from birth of the republic in 1911). But it is those born in the 1980s--the "seventh graders" now aged between 18 and 27--with whom the phrase is now identified.

Ongg's original use of the term "strawberry" to draw attention to the careful nurturing of the seventh graders glosses a remarkable change in Taiwan's demography in the post-war years. Like almost anywhere that had been through the hardship of World War II, Taiwan experienced a great post-war leap in the number of children being born. The total fertility rate (TFR)--the average number of children born to a woman during her childbearing years--was five during the 1960s. Economic planners, however, were aware that a massive explosion in population would destroy the gains in prosperity that Taiwan was beginning to see, and as a result the government organized a number of campaigns for smaller families. By the 1980s the TFR had fallen to two, (subsequently it has dropped still further, to 1.11 in 2006). The result of this population boom and its subsequent decline was a generation of baby boom parents brought up in large families in a relatively impoverished Taiwan who, benefiting from the economic miracle, had both smaller families and the financial resources to give far more to their children.

Liu Yu-mei, president of Shi-Chuan Co., is typical of Taiwan's baby boomers. "I have one son," she says. "I think that's enough because then he can have my complete love and attention. He won't be neglected as I was, growing up with 10 siblings. I grew up in very harsh conditions. I would do all that I can to give my child everything he asks for because the poverty I faced when I was small is too terrifying."

The seventh graders, products of this kind of upbringing, have a number of characteristics very different from that of their forbears. As children they have had larger spending allowances from their parents, and this affluence has allowed them to define themselves through consumerist modes previously unavailable. They have also been brought up in households where new access to wealth has meant the acquisition of modern appliances and consumer electronics, with which they display a sometimes intimidating familiarity. They have also benefited from an education system where declining birth rates and the opening of new institutions has made it progressively easier to get into university. But the converse of this is that parents with more money to spend than their own parents ever had, load up their children with extra curricula studies--cram schools for English, math, learning musical instruments, even for playing the game of Go, flourish.

Both scholars and the media have surveyed the seventh graders to understand them better. The results show a generation significantly different from anything that has come before it.

Open about Relationships

For example, a survey by The Journalist magazine this year showed that more than 50 percent of seventh graders were comfortable with the idea of a relationship between an elder female and a younger male.

"My girlfriend and I have been together for five years," said Lo Hau-wei, a graduate student at National Chiao Tung University. "I'm 24 and she is 26. I don't think age matters in a relationship at all. My parents cared a lot about the age issue at first, but after they saw how much my girlfriend loved me and how happy I was when we were together, they gradually stopped making fun of her age."

They also have a far more relaxed attitude to homosexuality which used to be taboo. This bears testimony to a greater open-mindedness among the seventh graders, as well as a greater willingness to experiment with lifestyles.

"I think the reason for the seventh grade students having relationships and sex sooner in their lives than their parents is because nowadays no one wants to get married," says George Lee, 19, a biochemistry major at National Sun Yat-sen University. "Being a virgin used to be very important in the eyes of my parents' generation. But now, who cares? I don't care if my girlfriend had sexual experiences or not. As long as we get along well, it's fine with me."

As for marriage Lee says, "I don't want to get married ever. I mean, what's the point? I could have a lot of relationships and wouldn't have to worry about commitments. Plus, living with my parents for the rest of my life seems like a great idea. They will pay for everything, even if they complain about me being glued to them. Also, now I bring my girlfriend home so often that my parents gave up criticizing me, because they gradually started to notice I wouldn't and don't want to change."

His classmate, Jane Lin, 18, also says she will never marry, having decided this when she was 10 years old.

"I don't trust commitments and I hate the idea of marriage," says Lin. "All I see from my parents is cheating, fighting, and betrayal. It makes me sick. Now that more and more Taiwanese men go to China to work, like my father once did, I believe the amount of adultery will only worsen. Why picture a wedding full of romance when it doesn't exist? In the future, I would like to have a job so that I could support myself and I wouldn't care if I stayed single for the rest of my life."

On homosexuality, Lin's view is typical of her generation: "I have a lot of gay friends, and I think, as long as they are happy, they should have the right to be with whoever they love. Gays and lesbians should be treated as normal people. And yet this issue could never be discussed by my parents. Even if I brought it up during a conversation, they would just pretend to be deaf. I wouldn't mind if I found out that I could accept a girl as my other half."

The strawberry generation tend to be better educated than their forebears--a survey by InsightXplorer, a market research company, showed that more than 70 percent of the surveyed had college degrees.

"It seems like nowadays everyone has a bachelor's degree," says Zimlite CEO Chang Tse-kuan. "I remember when I entered college, everyone in my town lit firecrackers all day long to celebrate for me. And when I started the company, it was still rare to see someone with a bachelor's degree; now, a bachelor's degree is a must. And work experience, licenses, language skills, etc, all these are considered as well as purely academic performance."

New Pressures

But while life seems more privileged, it also has new anxieties. If almost everyone among their peers has a bachelor's degree, how are the clever and the talented to show their strengths? Basically, by obtaining more qualifications. Graduate school is one way, although it places a greater financial burden on parents. Many professions, however, can only be entered if a license to practice has been obtained. Obtaining professional licenses has, as a result, become far more important for seventh graders--more than 80 percent of college students surveyed by The Journalist said getting a professional license would be beneficial when applying for jobs--and the competition to obtain them is much higher. But this makes education a higher-stakes gamble. In the old days, those who failed to get into university were left with second-rate jobs. But now it is possible to go through four years of often costly university education, and still, by failing to get a license, be left unemployable in the profession for which one has been studying.

"I am so worried that if I don't take the TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication), TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), GRE (Graduate Record Examination), and master things like Word and Excel," says George Lee, "companies won't even look at my resume."

Jane Lin has the same idea when it comes to professional skills. "It's hard to say how good you are in something," she says. "But with a qualification test result or a license, there is solid proof of one's abilities. It's not something handy to have, it's something you really need."

The world of work, in part-time jobs and holiday jobs so familiar to foreign students, used to be almost unknown amongst their Taiwanese counterparts. But now obtaining some kind of work experience is also regarded as a valuable asset.

"Work experience, travel experience, internships, scholarships, and computer skills," says Chang Tse-kuan, "These have become as important as language skills and academic performance, because these are the quickest way to see whether a person has not just knowledge but flair."

For seventh graders who are less driven, however, it is possible to graduate from university with no clear idea of what they want to do nor how much their talents are worth. A survey done by Academia Sinica's Center for Survey Research showed seventh graders expect starting monthly salaries ranging between NT$25,430 to $32,466 (US$770 to $983). Actual starting salaries are, in fact, at the lowest end of this spectrum--according to the Council of Labor Affairs, NT$26,700 (US$806) in 2006, some NT$762 (US$23) lower than it was eight years ago.

In finding a job and pursuing a career, the strawberries face not only competition from their peers in Taiwan, but also have to accept the reality of the new globalized job market. They try many different ways to improve themselves but still doubt they are prepared enough.

For example, Amy Chia, 23, a graduate student enrolled in the International Master's Program in International Communication Studies at National Chengchi University, works full-time in an international advertising agency while she studies, in order to prepare herself for the future.

"There are just so many things to learn, so many people to compete with, and so much pressure to face every single day," says Chia. "I just have to equip myself as best I can before I really start my career after graduation, otherwise I wouldn't know how to cope with the environment."

Chia says that the seventh graders face much more pressure than previous generations, much of which comes from changing living standards in Taiwan and the influence of globalization.

"I think life is much more challenging now," says Chia. "In the old days, people just had to work hard and they could improve their standard of living. Nowadays, even if a person works really hard, their living standard might not rise."

Vicky Chen, 24, a civil servant working for Taipei City Government's Bureau of Public Works, agrees with Chia. She thinks, in fact, that far from being unable to take pressure, the strawberries are actually braver and tougher than their forbears. "Think about it, did our parents ever have to worry that another person overseas could take over their jobs?" Chen says. "Did they ever have to care about not having skills outside their job description such as fluency in different languages or advanced computer skills? Not likely. And the only way I can deal with this is to try to learn as much as I can and try to upgrade my abilities all the time. It's really tiring but essential."

Neither Chia nor Chen has any desire to get married, nor do their boyfriends, and none of them want children.

"I can't imagine having to sacrifice myself and let my children use up the money I earned. I can't even fulfill my own desires; why waste money, time and life in creating a human that just brings about more unfulfilled desires?" says Chen. Both Chia and Chen say they want to travel around the world. They aim to work until they are 40 and then they would invest their retirement money in domestic and foreign stock markets and bonds while traveling to different countries and working part-time jobs along the way until they are aged 60.

"With no children and family," says one, with the other agreeing, "life would be more interesting because I would be the one making the decisions and directing it."

Perhaps much of this should not be taken too seriously. After all, most people at 35 would be embarrassed to be reminded of the views they held in their early 20s. But the essence of much of the criticism of the strawberries is not that they hold unconventional views, but rather they can't handle the pressure of adulthood.

In one recent survey of seventh graders' views about themselves, more than 50 percent actually agreed with their elders that they were unable to handle responsibility and stress. But it isn't all criticism. Fifth and sixth graders, i.e. those born between 1960 and 1980 had similar opinions about the strawberries, namely that they were more creative, more open-minded, more willing to tackle new challenges and far and away more technology savvy. The strawberries themselves, according to The Journalist, think that creativity is their strongest characteristic, followed by their ability to work as part of a group.

Chia says, "I think I am very creative. I always come up with ideas for our ad campaigns that surprise my colleagues at first and then after some explanation, I can make them laugh and accept my idea as a good one."

The IT Generation

But if there is one thing that separates the seventh graders from their elders, it is their information technology nous. They have been raised with mobile phones and the Internet since early adolescence and are both more aware of and able to exploit IT's potential far better than their elders. It is perhaps the overwhelming tide of new ideas that the Internet gives access to that gives the strawberries their openness and willingness to experiment, but being cyber-savvy can have its negative side. For example, one criticism often leveled at seventh graders is that their familiarity with the informality of the Internet comes at the expense of knowing how to behave in the real world. Yeh Da-hau, chief secretary of the Taiwan Alliance for the Advancement of Youth's Rights and Welfare, points out that a major criticism of strawberries' work performance revolved around "cyber-language usage," language common on the Internet but not really appropriate for official conversations. Some even think that there is a blurring of the difference between the cyberworld and the real world which works to the strawberries' detriment.

But many of those who deal with strawberries on a daily basis take issue with the conventional stereotype. "There is no such thing as the strawberry generation," says Lung Ying-tai, professor at the Centre for General Education in National Tsing Hua University. "Those who cannot handle pressure should not be thought representative of the whole," says Lung. "This term should not be used to characterize a generation that contains all kind of people."

Tang Jui-ho, the drillmaster at National Taiwan University, agrees. He thinks that most young people do not deserve the skepticism meted out to them by their elders. "Many volunteer to help with schoolwork or provide necessities to those deficient in both education and economic resources, for example, the fishery service club sends clothes and provides education to country school students for free and it's one of the most popular clubs in the university," he says.

He adds that today's students seem more active and eager to take part in extracurricular activities and thinks the strawberry generation stereotype is little more than a media creation.

Yet others who deal frequently with seventh graders don't think the strawberry syndrome is entirely media hype. Wang Hei-ling, host of the program Hit Music Town in TTV mobile radio and a lecturer in the Radio and Television Department of National Chengchi University, says that the most noticeable thing about the seventh graders, compared with their predecessors, is the lack of feedback in the classroom.

"They look so empty that I can never know how much they understand me," she says. "They have too many choices now, and they just can't pay much attention to one thing at a time."

But Yeh Da-hau agrees that the seventh graders are treated unfairly. "It's not really right for today's youngsters to carry such a negative label as the 'strawberry generation,' with its implication that they are fragile, irresponsible and lack the ability to see projects through, " she says. Socially deviant behavior such as fighting, drug-taking and illegal racing is hardly an exclusive prerogative of the seventh graders. She thinks one of the reasons for the strawberries' bad press is that they are simply not so willing to obey the expectations of adults as their predecessors.

"Fifth and sixth grade students [i.e., those born in the 1960s and 70s] cared about the needs of the majority and saved their incomes. The strawberry generation focus more on what they themselves want. It's a conflict that has come about through the change in working environments."

As for the strawberries' famous lack of resolve, Yeh thinks that to the extent that this is true it is a product of their upbringing. "They have to function within a high-pressure system. Inevitably they face difficulties but they are not really mature enough to know what they can do to conquer the obstacles they run into," she says.
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Yvonne Chang and Joanne Chen are students at the Graduate Institute of Journalism at National Taiwan University.

Copyright © 2007 by Yvonne Chang and Joanne Chen