Generation fun

Yang Huameng, 20 I like when people put different things together, such as rewriting parts of an ancient Chinese poem in English, and somehow making the Chinese verses rhyme with the English ones. The contrasts created are really humorous. The online posts I like most are fragmented and jumpy. Ben Bing, a PhD candidate in the United States and one of my favorite authors, is a very casual person. Reading her stories is like having her talk to you in a playful way. There's a lot of information in her posts, but you never know what's coming next. She's unpredictable and smart. She once wrote: "I had a very poor official career. My election as class monitor when I was in the fourth grade was the highpoint of my two decades of political life." I watch TV series from the United States, and find it extremely funny when serious characters, including Sheldon Copper in The Big Bang Theory, suddenly tell dry, witty jokes. Sheldon is a nerdy scientist. He always knocks on his neighbor Penny's door three times when he wants to see her. But one time he knocked five times, and said the two extra knocks were insurance for the future, in case he wanted to see Penny urgently and might not have time to knock three times. Liu Yanjun, 18 Some people like TV shows from the US because of the bold lines and exaggerated outfits, but I just enjoy the sense of humor in programs such as Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory and Two Broke Girls. They show embarrassing moments that could actually happen among families and friends, but do it in funny and interesting ways. And after telling the jokes, they always make a serious point, such as families are important, or friends should take care of each other. By doing this, they make the jokes meaningful. By contrast, two recent Chinese comedies, Breakup Guru and Breakup Buddies, just told meaningless jokes. They copied old jokes from the Internet - the director might have thought they were funny, but I found most of them a little vulgar. Also, the actors were dressed in ridiculous outfits which weren't funny at all, and just made them look foolish. They were desperate to grab the audience's attention by destroying their own images.

"The Post-'90s love to watch funny things, so I thought I would gain a larger audience if I made the video funny. After all, a program highlighting legal issues should be popular if it's going to be successful," Liu said.

In November, Liu's video won first prize in a national competition for short online films. He said making the video required a lot of hard work and design, which he didn't find interesting, "but we have a spirit of having fun and making things funny," he said.

Graduate student Yang Qihan, who was born in 1988, said he's not a typical post-'90s person, but he knows all about his generation's attitude to having fun. Most of his 20,000 followers on WeChat, China's most popular social network, are Post-'90s. His posts, which are famous for "mocking things through negativity", include "Stop complaining that your ID photo makes you look ugly. You are ugly."

Yang said a long, serious article he wrote about The Analects of Confucius garnered 500 hits, while a short, satirical essay about how poor people admire the lifestyles of the wealthy was read more than 2 million times within three days of being published.

He added that while amusing things have always been popular, the Post-'90s have more freedom to follow their instincts than previous generations.

"They (the Post-'90s) don't give much consideration to 'should' or 'shouldn't', 'can' or 'can't'. Whatever they want, they just go for it," he said.

Yang said he likes Guo Degang, a Chinese comedian and crosstalk (wordplay) performer, and takes notes while watching his TV show to learn how to be funny.

"As China's economy has grown, the Post-'90s have had a better standard of living, so they can afford to have fun and do the things they like," Yang said. "But at the same time, they face very fierce competition in terms of exams and jobs, so they, more than any other generation, need to have something funny and relaxing they can use to escape the harsh realities of life."

Positive, not bitter

"Being happy is the most important thing" has become a crucial principle for the post-'90s generation, according to a 2013 report by China Youthology, a research organization that has been supplying companies with reports to help make their brands relevant and meaningful to young people since 2008.

The report, based on a field study of 26 people in six cities, concluded that when the Post-'90s choose to do something, they want the process to be fun and as easy and interesting as possible. They want it to be positive, not bitter and painful.

Moreover, they place a heavy emphasis on happiness and enjoying life. They have a positive attitude, but are perhaps prone to ignore important issues and dwell on trivial things. They can't bear setbacks, lack persistence and quit easily.

He Shu, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at Peking University, said most of the students in her class are about 21, and she has frequently been impressed by their work on assignments.

"Once I asked them to make a short film on a subject of their choosing. One group parodied CCTV's famous food program A Bite of China as A Bite of Peking University, and presented the food at the school's canteen in a smart and interesting way. I believe they had fun making that film, and also learned a lot about making movies during the process," she said.

For He, the generation's distinctive character traits are a positive, not a negative: "I don't think being playful will have a bad effect on their lives. On the contrary, I think they are more creative and energetic, and having a sense of humor and making things fun is actually a talent, a gift. I'm quite optimistic about the future of the post-'90s generation."

Contact the writer at pengyining@chinadaily.com.cn