바링허우 세대에 대한 小考 — 양칭샹의 『바링허우』 다시 읽기

Abstract

Yang Qing-xiang is a 1980-born young scholar who currently holds the position of an associate professor of Chinese literature at Renmin University in Beijing. His book Balinghou, Zenmeban? published in China 2015, contains a reflective consideration of the generation of ‘Balinghou’, who is called Chinese youth. This paper seeks to examine the features he mentioned about the generation of ‘Balinghou’, based on Yang Qing-xiang's Korean-language edition of Balinghou, Zenmeban? published in South Korea 2017. Yang Qing-xiang views the character of ‘Balinghou’, as historical nihilism, which is revealed through comparisons with the ‘Wulinghou’(50后) generation and literature of the 1980s. It points out that the younger generation as a historical entity and as an intellectual who participated in public discourse should have the passion and interest to participate in social and political participation represented by historical consciousness. However, they were called ‘Xiaohuangdi’(小皇帝) by various social media during their growth, and educated in the process of education becoming increasingly industrial. In childhood and early adolescence, they were more affected by the emergence of consumer culture than political propaganda. Historical consciousness expected of ‘Balinghou’ as a young generation in China should also be changed based on their understanding of this growth environment. For them, political consciousness no longer means revolution, and history and life have become closer in different ways, not in separation. Social participation is likely to emerge in their life, by means of the Internet and consumption.