Apr
23
The Expression of Anger
April 23, 2008 | | 1 Comment
By Maggie ZUO Yitong
It is not a post about psychology, hopefully, the title could not mislead my meaning. Regarding those recent top news in China, especially “Chinese boycotts of Carrefour”. Firstlly, I would like to discuss about the word “Fenqing” in China.
I searched it in Google, and found the translation from the website. “Fenqing” which is itself an abbreviation for “angry youth”. It mainly refers to youth who display a high level of Chinese nationalism. This term first appeared in Hong Kong in the 1970s, referring to those young people who were not satisfied with Chinese society and sought reform. It has now evolved into a term used exclusively in Internet slang.
It is an interesting word in China, which always used to describe the younger generation, so-called “after 1980th”. In fact, I am also one of the “after 1980th” generation. Last week, I talked with my friend, who was born in 1979, she have an interesting observer on my generation. “I found that your generation is more quite, compared with the ones born in 1970th and 1960th, the motive of revolution and changes is kind of little, this should not the way of your generation to express yourself.” For her questions, I am thinking about the answers. From my point of view, China’s current economic situation is the peak period in the history, for our generation, the conditions of life is favorable, most of us have never experience the hardships of life. And also we never think that the so-called personal opinions could change the national policy. Over time, we used to be silent, used to talk to ourselves on the internet. Basically, that could explain why the development of the internet in China is so fast recent years.
This time, the comments about “Boycotts of Carrefour” still focus on the young in China, that is because it is to boycott the foreign countries, but not the revolution of our own countries, therefore, the “Fenqing” spirit come back to the young, only when they think they themselves or their countries are in trouble, that is a common reflection, and also an interesting phenomenon.
Talking back to Carrefour, actually, this is the first time to “boycott France”. I think a lot of American should be familiar with the word “Freedom Fries“, which was a short-lived name used by some in the United States for French fires, as a result of anti-French sentiment in the United States. During the international debate over the decision to launch the 2003 invasion of Irap, France expressed strong opposition in the United Nations to taking such action. The French position was not popular with certain groups in the United States, leading to campaigns for the boycotting of French goods and businesses and the removal of the country’s name from products.
I am thinking why French products always become the object of boycott. I guess it is related to the international image of French in the world. We all know French is romantic and in pursuit of freedom, but when the violence such as Olympic torch relay, these kinds of things occurred in France, the public could not understand and accept.
I disagree to boycott Carrefour, the reasons are similar with some comments in the internet. More than 90% working staff in Carrefour is Chinese, the direct influences of boycotting will affect them. At the same time, the expression of anger should be calm down first, and then to seek for the methods to solve the problems.
(Week Nine Post)
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I found the comments on the characteristics of different generations really interesting.