Farewell to idealism: mapping China's university students of the 1990s

This article portrays China's university students of the 1990s and the differences between these youths and earlier generations. Corresponding to the political apathy and commercial ardor of post‐1989 China, the once appealing political idealism and activism of the 1980s was quickly replaced by a sort of fast‐food consumer culture that dominated Chinese society and campuses in the 1990s. Many students chose to distance themselves from sensitive political issues, though they still followed current affairs closely and held a strong nationalist outlook. They learned how to reconcile with existing social conditions and made their decisions, on career or politics, based on the principle of individual interests. Being compelled to shift their status from the ‘proud children of heaven’ to ordinary members of society, students readily went to great lengths to merge in and be submerged by the secular world.