By Lisa Li

It has become a cliché to say that Chinese youth are eager to express.  Marketers wanted to provide ‘stage’ for them to ‘express themselves’. Under the surface of the various fancy forms of expression (you name it, from singing, dancing, bands, to design, graffiti…), hardly ever did any of the ‘stages’ care to know why the youth want to express and what they want to express.

China Youthology Butter Youth Conference wants to provide a platform for edgy youth as well as common youth to talk about what they aspire, what they fear, what inspires them… It is not a gathering of elites, but a platform for diversity of youthfulness, and hopefully a platform for marketers to know more about what youth care to talk about.

This year China Youthology visited more than 40 universities in various cities. And we were lucky enough to have the opportunities to work on a couple of exciting projects that covers a wide variety of communities. An overall feeling is that the evolving individuality expands their horizons as well as takes them to bigger anxieties. Chinese youth are searching for meanings, searching for their unique identities, while feeling the tension of dream and reality. Yes all previous generations struggled with dream and reality, but today’s youth are exposed to the biggest number of possibilities while probably more conscious about the increasing uncertainties and risks than the post 70s. Butter Youth Conference hopes to inject courage to youth by sharing of the dreams, enthusiasm, and efforts of their peers.

Thankful to TEDxShanghai in June, the organizing committee of which invited China Youthology to introduce young speakers for a ‘youth section’ in June. The young speakers surprised us. Their genuine passion really engaged and inspired the audience. The inspiration led to today’s Butter.

The first Butter on Nov 14th invited 6 speakers. Fangfang talked about how the hobby of photography has given him a new angle of experiencing life. Gaigai talked about his experience of dancing on the opening of This Is It and how dancing as a hobby inspired his life. Zhang Xin spoke about a 5-year project of China Arts Academy on ‘China family aesthetic ethnographic research’ and his new work inspired by the project. And Candy’s ‘toy travel’ stories, Ryan’s street singer investigation, Tao’s own experience of ‘when post 80s teacher meets post 90s students’.

LET’S SPREAD!

Fangfang talked about how the hobby of photography has given him a new angle of experiencing life.

Gaigai talked about his experience of dancing on the opening of This Is It and how dancing as a hobby inspired his life.

Zhang Xin spoke about a 5-year project of China Arts Academy on ‘China family aesthetic ethnographic research’ and his new work inspired by the project.

Candy’s ‘toy travel’ stories.

Ryan’s street singer investigation.

Tao’s own experience of ‘when post 80s teacher meets post 90s students’.

Filed under: China Youthology News, Methodology, Qing Gong Guan, Butter Youth Conference, China youth culture, Lisa Li