I faced SARS in sixth grade, swine flu when I started high school, and H7N9 when I entered college after the gaokao. Throughout my four years of college, rumors of the world's impending end never stopped spreading. To the first generation of kids born in the 1990s, how are you doing?
A bizarre gaokao system, rote education, a generation with plenty to eat and wear, a generation good at self-reflection, a generation labeled "brain-dead": are you really doing okay?
I dedicate this story to the kids born in the early 1990s, who share many of the same youthful memories as those born in the late 1980s. Everyone's youth is unique. The characters may be the same, but the feelings are different; there may be struggles and confusion, but in the end, we grow; there may still be plenty of regrets, but in the end, it is beautiful. There's no need to magnify the pain of youth, nor to hide the setbacks you've endured. What comes easily to someone else may be a huge ordeal for you, and so it becomes an unforgettable memory, even if it seems insignificant to others. I want to tell the story of our youth, not have it casually dismissed by someone else.
