Young China

There are about 200 million of China's "restless" generation, those born in the 1990s. While their parents were forced to focus on basic needs, Chinese millennials are the first modern generation that gets to ask en masse: Who do we want to be? What is our role in the world? Their answers will shape the future of China. Their sheer number will help shape the century for all of us.

Zak Dychtwald was twenty when he first arrived in China. He spent most of his twenties there, living with Chinese roommates, including punk rockers and prospective CCP cadre, in apartment shares and hostels, talking over long train rides and endless restaurant meals, and creating a full Chinese "mental diet"—that is, speaking Mandarin only.

In this compelling narrative, Dychtwald offers an up-close look at the Chinese generation born after 1990, including how young Chinese think and feel about everything from money and sex to their government, the West, and China's shifting role in the world—not to mention their love affair with food, karaoke, and travel. Set primarily in the eastern second-tier city of Suzhou and the budding Western metropolis of Chengdu, Young China explores the touchstone issues this young generation faces, from single-child pressure in conflict with deeply held Confucian values to test-taking madness and the frenzy to buy an apartment as a prerequisite for marriage; from one-night stands to an evolving understanding of family.