Chinese and Vietnamese Youth in the 1990s

parents' educations and occupations were much more directly tied to or influenced by opportunities provided by the state.1 Not surprisingly, a yawning generational gap makes it difficult for older people and youth to communicate. Parents are troubled by youthful passions for foreign music, clothing fashions and consumer products. Communist Party leaders in both countries persistently exhort youth to remember their roots and to eschew "poisonous" alien culture. In making comparisons between the youth in China and Vietnam, we need to ask whether the youth culture of one nation influences the other. There is no evidence that Chinese young people today pay any particular attention to developments in Vietnam. On the other hand, Vietnamese young people do watch Chinese television programs, listen to Chinese popular music and read translations of Chinese kung-fu (martial arts) stories, although the vast majority of these influences originate in Hong Kong and Taiwan, not the PRC. With regard to government actions, Beijing officials may listen with interest as visiting Vietnamese delegations describe problems and prospects vis-a-vis the younger generation, but they do not appear to have borrowed any policies from their small neighbour to the south. By contrast, Hanoi officials not only pay close attention to Beijing's efforts to manage young people but even