Hard lessons ahead for cool kids

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By Hong Liang (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-15 07:37

Watching television during the rainy evenings in the past couple of weeks, I came across some Japanese drama series, two of which I found particularly interesting. One was "the young master chef", an animation, and the other was "women volleyball players".

Neither of them could possibly lay claim to any artistic appeal, with their inane plots and cardboard characters that are typical of most of the television dramas that we have come to accept.

But unlike many other made-for-television programs, these two distinguished themselves by relentlessly driving home a single point: the pursuit of perfection.

For that reason, I believe that these two drama series, though outdated and crude, have special relevance when our sense of value, shaped by years of easy money, cheap prices and quick profits, is shaken by rising inflation and the specter of a global economic recession.

We may laugh at the ridiculously laborious efforts spent on making a common meat pie in "the young master chef", or the inhumanly torturous training regimen imposed on the women volleyball players in the other program. But we should not ignore the message that these two drama series tried to convey.

I am not sure whether I am reading too much into those two rather coarse and implausible shows. But underneath the comic exaggerations, which were actually quite funny and entertaining to watch, lurked a moral lesson which professed that it's not good enough to try one's best, it's the result that really matters.

This is a lesson that the young people in Hong Kong, my hometown, or those on the mainland, for that matter, must learn by heart. Unlike people of my generation, the young men and women born after 1980, who are coming into the job market now, have never experienced hard times.

Even during the financial turmoil that rocked the region between 1997 and 2003, export trade, the main engine of wealth creation for many Asian economies, had remained robust. At that time, global inflation was almost a non-issue. Oil price had remained comfortably at below $50 a barrel and food prices hadn't seen any increase in the past two decades.

In fact, what had many economic planners in Asia worried most then was deflation, which threatened to depress the standard of living achieved through rapid industrialization and globalization since the early 1980s.

The problems we are facing now are much more serious and complicated, although the situation is not without precedent. Rising oil and food prices are threatening to drag the world into an economic quagmire of stagflation, a recession accompanied by rising inflation.

A combination of factors, including the depreciating US dollar against most major world currencies and rampant speculation by international investment funds, have pushed the price of oil to more than $140, up more than 40 percent in the past six months. Some leading research organizations and financial houses have predicted that oil price will rise to $200 a barrel by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, the prices of grains and other foods have risen to levels that have caused hardship to the urban poor in many less well-developed countries. The United Nation and some other world organizations have expressed concern that escalating food prices could trigger widespread social unrest in some of the poorest countries.

The world had seen the destructive force of stagflation in the early 1970s when oil-producing countries cut production to jack up prices. It took more than 10 years for the US to conquer inflation and restart its economy through the pursuit of innovation in finance and technology. Japan shook off the doldrums in the relentless pursuit of manufacturing excellence.

Our young people must be prepared to face such a challenge now and have the will to succeed.

E-mail: jamesleung@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/15/2008 page8)