Chinese Youth: A New Generation for New Challenges?

National audienceKarl Mannheim's theory considers that the changes in the context of socialization of the new cohorts and the change of lifestyle are the key components of the formation of the "socio-historical generation". Going along with this statement, this paper regards the most important challenges that Chinese youth is facing as the matrix of the formation of a new generation which emerged when the Great Opening and the Four Reforms decided by Deng Xiaoping became effective for a large part of population. It took 15 years to implement and put into motion this radical change in economy, society and culture. And it is only in 1995 - 2000 that the making of a new generation became concrete. Four key challenges can be identified that characterize this new generation by its difference: an aging society and a deficit of young women, a system of formation that goes faster than the economy and the labor market, youth unemployment and the compulsory modernization of the whole system of production and the transformation of sexual behaviors, family life that indicate a deep and steady transformation of norms and values in private life