The Sad Young Men

The Sad Young Men

• a term created by F. Scott Fitzgerald in his book All the
Sad Young Men to describe the disillusioned post-World
War I younger generation, especially the young writers
who lived as expatriates in west Europe for a short time.
They were also called the "lost generation" by Gertrude
Stein.
• The remark of Gertrude Stein, “you are all a lost
generation”, addressed to Hemingway, was used as a
preface to the latter’s novel, The Sun Also rises, which
brilliantly describes an expatriate group typical of the ‘lost
generation’ .
Beat generation
• After WWII in US
• Certain American artists and writers who were popular
during the 1950s
• Novelists Jack Kerouac, Chandler Brossard
• Poets Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
• And many others who had worked in the around SF
• They reject traditional social and artistic forms
• In literature they adopted rhythms of simple American
speech and of so-called progressive jazz
• During the 1960s “beat” ideas and attitudes were absorbed
by other cultural movement, and those who practiced the
“beat” lifestyle were called “hippies”
Angry Young Men
• In England about the same time as Beat generation (1950s)
• A group of writers, playwrights (e.g., John Osborne,
Arnold Wesker), novelists (Kingsley Amis, John Braine,
etc.)
• Discontent with the staid, hypocritical institutions of
English society
 WWI
Lost generation WWII
(US) Beat generation (US)
Angry Young Men (UK)
Para. 1
• Who are they? What are they like?
• Do you think there’s such “younger generation problem”
in China? “Were young people really so wild?”
• What did they do?
drink illegally
denunciation of puritan morality
experimentation in lovemaking
wild parties playing jazz music
odd and eccentric dress and conduct
sheiks and flappers
• speakeasy: (Americanism) a place where alcoholic drinks are sold illegally,
esp. such a place in the US during Prohibition (the period 1923-33). (美国禁酒令
期间的)非法的酒店
• flask-toting: always carrying a small flask filled with whisky or other strong
liquor身带烈性酒的
• sheik: (Americanism)a masterful man to whom women are supposed to be
irresistably attracted[美国语](能使女子倾心的)美男子
• vagary: an odd，eccentric，or unexpected action or bit of conduct古怪行径；
难以预测的行为
• flapper: [colloq．](in the 1920’s)a young woman considered bold and
unconventional in actions and dress [口](在20世纪20年代被认为)举止与衣着不
受传统拘束的年轻女子，轻佻女郎
Was there really a younger generation problem?
• YES because there’s always this problem.
• NO because their problem is different
• … degeneration of jazzmad youth …
• the moral corruption and depravity of young people who blindly and
foolishly fond of jazz music
• What’s your attitude toward jazz music? Should teenagers be allowed to
have access to it?
Para. 2
• The social, even world background of this phenomenon
• Is there any similarity bt. that time and the current
situation in China?
• The country no longer isolated in politics or tradition
• the democracy issue in China
• Can we just follow the principles of right and wrong as accepted
in our own country?
• Rising up as an international figure, a world power
• Can never retreat back
• ‘red movement’ in Chongqing
• traditional confusian values
Para. 3
• The rejection of Victorian gentility
• Middle-class respectability and affected refinement and elegance
• How does this related with the economic development?
• Are we facing the same problem in China now?
• Big successful factories
• Businesses became huge corporations devoid of any
human feelings and the ruthless desire to dominate was
exercised on a large scale.
National Network for Child care
• COMPETITION: IS IT HEALTHY FOR CHILDREN?
Competition is a learned behavior. Humans are not born
competitive. What we are born with is an instinct to
survive, but the desire to win and competitiveness are
learned through social interactions.
• Competitions are not always fun. Competition is nearly
always set up as a win-lose situation and is more likely to
be fun for those who win, not those who lose. Sometimes
even those who win do not have fun because they focus on
the goal of winning, not the joy of the process.
• In this new atmosphere, the principles of polite, courteous
and considerate behavior and conduct that were formed in
a quieter and less competitive age (before WWI) could no
longer exist.
Last sent. in para. 3
• The war was a catalytic agent, it threw the young people
into this form of mass murder, released the violent
energies that they had repressed.
• When the war was over, the young people used their
newly released violent energies to destroy the 19th-century
society that was getting old and becoming unacceptable.
• What else can be a catalytic agent besides the war?
• precipitate (v.) : throw headlong；cause to happen before
expected，needed；bring on猛抛，猛投；突然发生；
促使

• obsolescent (adj.) : in the process of becoming obsolete即

将过时的；逐渐被废弃的
Para. 4
• The temptation to escape
• Naughty alcoholic sophistication
naughty (adj.) : improper, obscene 不得体的；猥亵的
• Bohemian immorality
• orgy (n.) : any wild riotous licentious merry—making;
debauchery 纵酒饮乐；狂欢
• spree (n.) : a lively, noisy frolic 狂欢，纵乐
• reveler (n.) : a person who makes merry or is noisily
festive 狂欢者，狂宴者
Para. 5: the start
• our young men began to enlist under foreign flags
Our young men joined the armies of foreign countries to fight in
the war

They wanted to take part in the glorious adventure before the

whole war ended.
• Military service == a romantic occupation
• “Form characters”
• Last sentence:
draft (n.) : the choosing or taking of an individual or individuals
from a group for some special purpose, esp. for compulsory
military service 征兵：挑选
Para. 6
• Complicated feelings when they got back in 1919
• Home town almost unaffected by the war. The naïve people were
still talking pompously and patriotically as they had done a few
years ago (they were now disillusioned and hardened people as
they had seen too much action).
• Old jobs were taken
• Less desirable than non-veterans
• They could no longer adapt themselves to lives in their
home towns and their families
• They suddenly felt very confused and weary of the world
• They knew they did not fight to make the world safe for
democracy but for the imperial interests of the different
nations
• They knew the old Victorian social structure in the US
was out-of-date and should be changed
• But they were now asked to hold in these energies
released by the war and to start living and behaving as
they did before the war started
“the returning veteran also had to face …” (p.161)
• The returning veteran soldiers also had to face the stupid
cynicism of the victorious allies in Versailles who acted as
cynical as Napoleon did. They had to face Prohibition
which the lawmakers hypocritically assumed would do
good to the people. And they also had to face the self-
satisfied patriotic air of the war profiteers.
Para. 7
• Greenwich village set the example.

• dubious (adj.) : rousing suspicion; feeling doubt; skeptical

引起怀疑的；感到怀疑的；怀疑的

• flout (v.) : be scornful; show contempt; jeer；scoff轻蔑，

藐视；嘲弄；侮辱
Para. 8
• Imitators among the non-intellectuals
• Reactions from various parties
• Pulpits (preachers): reject
• Movies and magazines
• Advertising
• Younger brothers and sisters imitate although they won’t
feel the loss or disillusionment (为赋新词强说愁）
Para. 9
• Is this what they want?
--- NO! They didn’t feel pleased or honored by the imitation of their
lifestyle by so many people.
• Why? What do they really want?
--- CHANGES TO US!
CHANGES
• More sensitive to art and culture
• Less greedy for material gains
• Not to accept standardization so easily
• Journalism is only a tool that helps businessmen to make
money.
• Families spent too much time making money
• Joyless, standardized, hypocritical, sexually unsatisfying
Para. 10
• After they moved to Europe
“In no sense a movement …”
• The “lost generation” was in no ways a literary movement.
It was only a name given by Gertrude Stein to the
American expatriates living in Paris. Yet the attitude of
these expatriate writers influenced other writers and their
attitude was also expressed in most of the writings of their
time.
• What’s the end?
--- they all came back one after another within a few years to the
US because they all felt unhappy and depressed at being away
from home and family
Para. 11
• They are not actually “lost”.
• They bitterly attacked the smug, self-satisfied,
conventional and materialistic people in the US but loved
America.
• They produced the liveliest, freshest, and most stimulating
literary works that America had so far ever seen.
Post-80s in China
• Growing up in modern China, this generation has been
characterized by its optimism for the future, newfound
excitement for consumerism, entrepreneurship, and
acceptance of its historic role in transforming modern
China into an economic superpower.
• These people are also distinguished by their increased
access to digital media such as computers, MP3 players
and mobile phones.
• Post-80s in China often experience a palpable generation
gap between them and their elders
Strawberry generation 草莓族[1] or 草莓世代
• a Chinese language neologism for Taiwanese people born
between 1981 and 1991 who "bruise easily" like
strawberries -- meaning they can't withstand social
pressure or work hard like their parents' generation; the
term refers to people who are insubordinate,[3] spoiled,
selfish, arrogant, and sluggish in work.[4]
• Persons from this generation have grown up being
overprotected by their parents and in an environment of
economic prosperity, in a similar manner to how
strawberries are grown in protected greenhouses and
command a higher price compared to other fruits.
Post-90s
• people born between the years 1990 to 1999 in urban
areas.
• They are usually concerted to brain-disabled characters
and non-mainstream culture.
• The early part of this generation, at least, is often classed
as a part of China's Generation Y along with 80s-born.
brain-disabled characters (Chinese: 脑残体; "Martian
Script": 腦殘躰)

• the Internet slang used by some after-ninety netizens

(1990s netizens in Mainland China). For this, the after-
ninety generation has a disparaging name as brain-disabled
people.
• These kind of characters can be usually seen in user names
or signatures of some after-ninety netizens in Tencent QQ
or BBS.
• Brain-disabled characters are usually considered a symbol
of the post-90s generation's non-mainstream culture. It's a
branch of Martian language.
• NSC = expression in normal Simplified Chinese
BDC = expression in brain-disabled characters.
• Example 1:
NSC: 有时候不知道脑子里在想什么。
BDC: 宥時候卜之辺腦孑哩菑緗叶吆。
• Example 2:
NSC: 每天想念你已成了一种习惯。
BDC: 莓兲湘埝祢巳宬孑1.种漝掼。