The 1980s, the time we were born, was a time when dreams began to fly while poems began to die. We had our childhood in the 1980s and remember it as a time of unambiguous innocence.

We reached adolescence in the 1990s when our parents began to sense ¡°the socialism factory¡¯s¡± malfunction. ¡°Private property¡± were no longer dirty words to them. The inflation rate soared. Many proletarians were replaced by arrivistes.

In the new century, we left college and got jobs, but adolescence continued. We found that our parents were laid off, labour markets were jammed and every indicator was falling except the real-estate price index. We smiled at this world and took a deep breath: ¡°Hey, here we come!¡±

Since our debut on this society we have undergone lots of criticism calling us indulged, selfish, egotistic and lacking social responsibility. However, frankly speaking, those complaints don¡¯t worry us as much as rising house prices or the dreadful difficulties of job-hunting.

We no longer argue or fight over ideological wreckage as those born in the 1960s did. They did so as they believed this wreckage could save their castaway lives, but we have realized that the sea is imaginary. We pay no more attention to sixth-generation directors¡¯ realistic films than to Cannes beach scenes, even if some of these directors find critical acclaim overseas. Let those born in the 1970s cast their minds back and mourn.

We are spending tomorrow¡¯s money, not because we have forgotten about frugality but because we have decided that youth deserves more enjoyment than it can afford in one¡¯s lifetime. We are optimistic about our futures, and if this is mistaken it would not in any case be so bad to divide up a life¡¯s worth of poverty.

We have learned to mock, yet we don¡¯t know how to preach. Faith has become irrelevant, and it seems we have lost some values but in fact they never existed.

Born in the 1980s, growing godlessly, we are living in our own ways. Teaching should be selective and preaching must be abandoned, while we still have to face a real world where we not only have to earn a cozy niche for ourselves in this overcrowded place, we also have to find our own principles in life, since so many so-called principles turned out to be only ¡°the emperors¡¯ new clothes¡±.

Thanks to the opening policy and the economic blooming of China, we are enjoying much more affluence and freedom together with a diversity of values than our elders. I really don¡¯t know if it is fortunate or unfortunate that we don¡¯t have so much to criticize. We have adopted a bourgeois attitude in advance, but that doesn¡¯t mean that we will be permanently apolitical.

Trapped in the soft landing of the Chinese economy and facing increasing social competition, we, as the entrants into society, are encountering difficulties that are not really smaller than our elders faced. The only difference is we never complain because we are not that old.

Anyway, I am proud to be part of 1980s generation, because in this era many antiquated ideas have been forsaken and we have witnessed such great changes. I also feel lucky that our pressures, when we grow up to encounter them, come from simple reality rather than elusive dogmas. We are going to embrace diverse values and take responsibility for our families and nation in our own ways.