Soaring realty prices ground golden dreams

Younger generation find the going tough as stress levels mount

The Chinese dream is no different from the rest of the world and centers around the promise that new generations will have better standards of living than the ones before them. That in turn means there would be better job options, material comforts and home ownership.

But that dream may not be easy to achieve, considering that the dizzying property price spiral and higher fuel prices are leaving more and more youngsters disgruntled and often stressed and burnt out.

Nothing personifies the post-80s generation in China better than stress. In fact stress rules their lives be it the house or fuel prices, or the pressure to get married, and have a good job even as the world around them keeps changing at a fast pace.

Evidence that the stress levels among the generation is peaking came to the fore after the resounding success of a recent online video called "27, 28" that delves into the lives of 27- and 28-year-olds.

"I am now 28. The time to get up has turned to 7 am from mid-day," says the voiceover on the video.

"I am now 28. Instead of various online games, our free-talking topics have changed to vehicles, houses and stocks.

"I am now 28. Friends begin to care more about my marriage than my exam results."

"I am now 28. I have started to hate bars and feel more closer to the nature."

The entire video is peppered with similar conversations and clearly highlights the growing stress levels for the generation.

In spite of the floppy eyelids and messy hair of the hero, the 8-minute long video has been a pebble dropped into the pool, and is causing an ever-widening circle of ripples. It has since been picked up on hundreds of websites after it debuted just before the Spring Festival which fell on Feb 3. More than 1 million click-throughs and more than 10,000 comments have been reported on tudou.com, one of the largest video websites in China.

The video is now considered to be the epitome of the entire post-80s generation.

"That's exactly what my life is like, though I am just 24," says a netizen with the online name Super Rabbit. "We live in different cities, work on different jobs and meet different people. But our feelings and experience are not that different."

Of all the pressures confronted by this emerging generation, it is the high realty prices that most of them are not comfortable with.

"For new graduates like us, to buy a house in Beijing is a dream without the help of parents. But we still have to pursue it," says Fan Yu, a 27-year-old information technology professional. "A house can be the focus of a 20-something's life, but it is too small to be the only yearning within a teenager. Dreams shrink as we grow up."

Realty concerns exacerbated after the People's Bank of China raised the benchmark lending and deposit rates on Feb 9. Most of the youngsters are now worried about the higher repayment costs.

Experts have often pointed out that the realty price growth in major cities has not been commensurate with the wage hikes.

"The fluctuating interest rate is making us nervous. I'm concerned that realty prices may not decline for some time and also on the higher repayment period for my loans," says 28-year-old Zhou Jian, who is planning to buy an apartment in Tianjin over the next two years.

"The current prices make owning a house an expensive proposition for the 20-somethings. At the same time it will also help the generation set higher standards and work even more harder to achieve their goals. A goal, which is always one step away, should be encouraged," says Ren Zhiqiang, chairman of Huayuan Real Estate Group.

In his blog To the post-80s, Ren says, "the phenomenon of lack in sense of safety or negative emotions among the post-80s generation has its historical reasons, but we cannot deny that it's also a good time to realize dreams by effort".

"The post-80s generation have tough minds despite their cynical appearances," says a netizen nicknamed Lazy Fish. They have indeed come a long way and have been exposed to a myriad of events like the Sichuan Earthquake or big ticket events like the Beijing Olympics and Shanghai Expo. Through these events the generation has once again emphasized that they are the pillar stones of the Chinese society.

"I am just giving a channel for my peers to vent their feelings, so that they can set out again on their life journey after the release. I hope the emotional resonance will turn into positive energy," says the author of the video, screen named Head-wind Grass (Ni Feng Cao).