Discussion keeps the world's turning.
This is Roundtable. You're listening to Roundtable.
With myself, Hayoung, I'm joined by Lee Yee and Steve Hatherley in the studio.
Coming up, we share with you what's brought us cheer to light this week.
Join us for a dose of positivity, laughter, and all things that make our hearts sing in Roundtable's happy place.
And it used to be that being young meant you were on top of the world, right?
But nowadays, new studies say that young Americans are dealing with a surprising drop in the sense of happiness.
What happened to that carefree, joyful time we called youth?
Our podcast listeners can find us at Roundtable China on Apple Podcast.
And you know how to get hold of us if you need to.
Do thoughts, questions, comments, criticisms, or compliments, ease at FM Roundtable at FoxMail.com.
Now welcome to the happiest corner on the Airways.
Roundtable's happy place.
Delivery. Delivery. Delivery.
What is it? Happiness from Roundtable.
Lee, what is your happy place this week?
Well, I want to recommend a theater park.
I just visited a couple weeks ago.
A theater park. Exactly.
That's also my very first time experience of visiting such a theater complex.
And it's actually a theme, theater park.
And the only theme is a dream of red mentions.
I'm not really sure if you know about this Honglong Monk.
It's actually a classic Chinese literature.
And it is a novel written by Cao Xueqin during the Qing Dynasty.
That's about 300 years ago.
And this book is considered one of the greatest.
I mean one of the Chinese greatest novels.
And these, I mean, theater parks really is all about this novel.
And by the way, this novel reflects this social life and the custom of ancient China by really telling and documenting the downfall of wealthy and influential family at that time.
And it's really influential here in China.
And also I've just read it during my...
I was a... during my teenager years.
And it's really, you know, it has a huge impact on me.
Is it kind of like Journey to the West?
Yes, I was going to say. Steve, welcome to a very cultured show.
Within a couple of days we've talked about Journey to the West.
And now Lee is talking about the dreams of the Red Mansion.
I wonder if there will be a AAA video game that comes out about the dreams of the Red Mansion.
Well, this one could potentially attract more women.
I'm not saying women are only interested in romance.
But this story has a very famous love triangle.
But at the heart of it, I think it's still reflecting sort of the greater ups and downs of that period in time.
But anyway, so you've now listened to at least the stories of two out of the four classic literature books in China.
So what happens at this theater park then?
Well, I think it's really special.
It's not, you know, for, you know, traditional theater park, you maybe only enjoy one typical drama each day.
But for this, I mean, theater park, you can spend...
you can actually spend one day or two days inside this park.
Where you can enjoy actually as many theaters, dramas as possible as you want.
I spend a whole day in the theater park, which is extremely huge.
I mean, there are four large and eight small indoor theaters and meantime 108 scenarios basically and outdoor theaters.
So imagine how big it is.
Yes, I watched four dramas in total for one day.
And I think it's really worth recommending is that the DDDD for the major dramas, I mean, which are all about this classic novel dream of red mentions.
And they are really helping you.
I mean, if you are a fan of this novel, those dramas really help you better to better understand those characters and also why the story is written in this way.
I mean, really inspiring.
And meantime, there are also some small theaters, which are related to this dream of red mentions.
And meantime, some of them can be quite immersive.
And there, I also experienced my very first immersive theater there.
You know, as an introverted person, I somehow considered that 20 minutes to be the longest 20 minutes in my life.
Well, how interactive, how?
Because those actors, they keep interacting with you and you are somehow part of, you know, those players to advance the story, to advance the plot.
So I think that can be a very special experience.
So you see inside this theater park, you can experience different types of dramas.
And meantime, they're all organized in a quite organic way.
So which is quite, I think pleasant for me.
I know that stress of being in the crowd.
And like, when I went to Gian, I watched that really wonderful performance where I don't know what the name is, but they put a white screen.
And then behind the screen, they do like a puppet performance.
So I watched one of those.
And then the host came out and he was interacting with the crowd.
And I was the only foreigner in the group.
And I thought, oh no, I just, I know what's going to happen.
And sure enough, I was on the stage.
And he's trying to talk to me and I'm trying to talk to him.
I know that stress. But it's really cool that you found that park.
You had never heard of that before.
I actually, I heard of another, I mean, theater park, which is, of course, more famous.
I would say directed by the same director named Wang Chau, that is called Jiu Huanan.
Or, were you knee-clown, I guess?
Oh, by the way, this theater park is called Jiu Huan Long Meng.
That means unique dream of red mention.
So basically, it's the same series.
And for that, I mean, theater park in Huanan, I guess that's huge.
That's also huge. And also there are different, different small theaters where you can enjoy in the same day.
And they all tell the stories about this place, Huanan.
And also stories what's happening on this land and people living there.
So I always feel attracted by it, but it's new form of experiencing dramas within the whole day.
And the mean time you can experience different types, different themes.
And you can choose whatever you like to watch.
Yes. And we had a deep dive of a discussion about immersive theaters and dramas in China.
And do feel free to go back to our archives on our podcast platform.
And to revisit that episode, if you want to know more about it.
Thank you so much, Lee, for sharing your happy place and making me feel a little bit happier today.
Thank you. What about you, Steve?
What's made you happy this week?
I just learned about a wonderful new theater park that I want to visit.
My happy place is the gym.
I've been walking around the community for a good three weeks now, trying to find a gym to exercise.
I really enjoy going to the gym because of the mental health benefits of being in there.
Just makes your brain feel better and get your blood moving and all those extra things we already know about.
I had kind of given up because the gyms in our community here, maybe you know, maybe you don't, they're really quite small and they're really crowded because they're so popular.
And I thought, that's not really my style.
I need some more space. I had almost given up, I was at the grocery store just a few blocks away.
And there was a guy outside handing out pamphlets to a gym.
I took it and I was like, oh, and I saw swimming pool.
I looked at him. I said, swimming.
And he said, swimming. He said, do you want to go see it now?
The gym. And I said, yes, I do.
So it was across the street and it's this beautiful, huge gym in this building.
Nobody would know, but you would never know it was there.
Never know it was there.
And I signed up immediately.
Great. And I'm really happy about that.
I'm so surprised that you actually follow the guy to the place.
Oh, yeah. I avoid these people.
These sales representatives usually like the black place.
Yeah. Well, typically I think most people do, but I mean, I was looking for what he was selling.
Fantastic. Just a match made in heaven.
Oh, right. So we'll probably get a happier Steve on the show in the near future as you'd be.
I'm not pin. I can bring the bench press machine into the studio if you prefer.
A happier on top of a happy Steve and also ripped.
Yeah, well, we'll see about that.
What's your happy place this one?
Well, in the rich and varied galaxy of Chinese poetry that spans thousands of years, who holds a special place in our hearts, which poet resonates mostically with us, even till today.
So sure, also known as a sudo po, surely ranks among my top three, though he passed away 923 years ago.
His words remain a timeless balm for the Chinese soul.
August 24th marks the day we remember his passing.
And in the times of life's difficulties, we often turn to sudo po's words for solace and guidance.
When we're torn by indecision, he gently reassures us, Tian Ya He Chu Wu Fang Cao.
And here's my translation.
In matters of the heart, why claim to just one bloom?
When countless fragrant flowers await to light the gloom.
When we face sitbacks, he encourages us, Shui Pa, Yi Suo Yan Yu, Ren Ping Sheng, who's afraid, I'll take life as it comes, rain or shine.
When life's trails weigh us down, he reminds us, 人有悲欢离合,乐有阴情愿区,此事故南圈.
People have joys and sorrows, partings and reunions.
The moon waxes and wanes, perfection is hard to come by.
And when loneliness creeps in, he sets beside us and whispers.
人生如今流,我已是心人, life is like a way fairer than, and I'm just a fellow traveler.
A true Renaissance man, at least three centuries before the Renaissance itself, sudo po was a polymath of rare brilliance.
He excelled as an essayist, painter, calligrapher, engineer, and above all, a poet, mastering each craft with grace and ease, free from the burden of ancient pedantry.
And in the eleventh century, an era of restraint and constraint, his rather modern spirit shone through with ideas that celebrated human nature and thought, navigating life's challenges with remarkable ease.
And on this anniversary, why not read sudo po's writings with his spirit as your companion?
You'll never walk alone on this journey through life.
Coming up, ever felt like adulthood is not as awesome as we thought it would be?
US studies show that today's young adults are dealing with more stress and anxiety than ever before.
What gives? What gives?
Looking for passion? How about fiery debate?
Want to hear about current events in China from different perspectives?
Then tune in to Roundtable, where East meets West and understand it is the goal.
It's the hour of Roundtable with myself, young.
I'm joined by Lee Ye and Steve Hatherley in this studio.
Remember when youth was all about boundless energy and peak happiness, times may have changed.
Recent studies from the US reveal a surprising decline in well-being and happiness among young adults.
A major factor contributing to this shift is the rise in mental health challenges, including elevated rates of depression and anxiety exacerbated possibly by an era of constant digital connectivity.
So what happened to the happiness level of young adults in the US today?
Apparently the traditional U-shaped happiness curve no longer applies.
Sure, I think before we talk about what happened to young people nowadays, I think we can refer to what is this U-shaped happiness curve exactly.
I mean, in 2008, professors Andrew Ausbord from World Week University in David Blunchflower from Deadmoth College introduced this concept of U-shaped happiness curve.
And this theory basically states that happiness follows a U-shaped track over a person's life, peaking in youth and old age while reaching a lower point in middle age.
So the top, the lines of the U and the top two parts of the U, one is in your youth and then the other is in your old age.
And then it just goes down and it drops out somewhere.
I guess we'll find out and then it goes back up until you're finally happy again when you are 95 years old.
Exactly. So basically that means young and old adults are happier than middle-aged adults.
I would say the down point is middle-aged position, Steve.
And also hundreds of studies in many countries around the world have also shown the same pattern.
And what's even surprising to me is that this model was even observed in primate species.
But recently, you know, somehow researchers are seeing a major shift as young adults aged between 18 to 25, report being happier than now than people in their 40s for 50s.
And this is according to a new study conducted by Blancheflower and fellow researchers.
So basically they analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, behavioral risk factors, surveillance system between 2009 and 2022.
And they found that a significant increase in reports of poor mental health among young people, specifically over 7% of respondents reported experiencing poor mental health for an entire month, a rate that has nearly doubled since 1993.
And it's not only happening in US, I mean according to the Spain Labs Global Mind Project, which collected data from 34 countries between 2020 and 2023, from similar trans globally.
All around the world. Yeah, there was another report from the World Economic Forum that showed that since 2006, this is quite depressing.
Levels of reported youth happiness have declined in North America, South America, Europe, South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa as well.
It's an international thing.
Young people just aren't happy anymore.
What do you think or what have these studies attributed to the factors to this phenomenon?
There's no clear answer.
And I think that's the frustrating thing about it.
And that's not just my opinion, that's the opinion of the experts who are conducting these studies.
Blancheflower himself attributes the trend to the use of smartphones and social media.
But he also said aside from smartphones, I can't really think of anything else.
Which somehow suggests the study is inconclusive.
But it also suggests that we can only really point to one major culprit here.
Social media, smartphones, constantly being connected and things like that.
I think if we talk about it a little bit more though, we can find that there's more reasons for it.
Exactly. I think there is already a very clear consensus of why young people are unhappier than ever.
And by meantime, worth noting, things like that, this downward trend began before the COVID-19 pandemic.
And meantime, according to Amber, Wem said, Charles, she is a clinical psychologist at the Yale School of Medicine.
And she says that maybe one reason could also be that the world experiences more turbulence than ever.
And so that's why young people, they somehow need to start to worry something like, well, I'm going to afford my higher education as we talk about increasing higher education fee in US and also in other parts of the world.
And also, am I going to afford what I want to accomplish in future and career advancements.
Exactly. But these are things that people have been worried about for decades and decades and decades in countries all around the world.
Do we really think, I mean, those are the typical answers.
And not that those aren't real and those aren't true.
It's just people have experienced that before.
What's different now? What's going on now?
I think that's a very good question because it seems that young people at certain age need to worry about this, you know, substantial things anyway.
And the thing is that now we have, you know, more prevalence use of social media, which could be even stressing for young people.
For example, what when you think about, oh, am I, you know, getting paid enough as my peers, maybe in the past, the people still need to compare this, you know, important factors with people.
I mean, their peers only inside their residential neighborhood, what were inside their workplace, where inside their school.
And now with the increasing use of social media, suddenly you're seeing, you know, all like young people, what kind of life they're living on social media all around the world.
So that kind of comparison is stronger, so which might also contribute to an increasing anxiety, I guess.
I think that's a big factor that's detrimental to the mental health of all people who are on social media of all age groups, if you're not aware of this terrible effect.
That subconsciously, you're constantly comparing yourself with other people.
And I just want to say, stop comparing your behind the scenes with everyone's highlight reel.
Because what shows up on social media, whether it's your reach at Fred Momens, that seems a little bit more private maybe as opposed to some of the other social media platforms in China.
I would think, okay, let's say, uh, weibo or Xiao Hongshu compared that to Instagram or Facebook, maybe not the best comparison Facebook anyhow.
So for all these public faced accounts to appear, a lot of the times they're carefully curated.
And there's a whole team behind this social media influencer in taking those pictures.
Right. Yes, you're absolutely right.
But when you see that, it makes you feel like you have to do that too.
Or just downright inferior.
Well, yeah. And I'm immediately reminded of the episode we did on roundtable of Sephora kids.
And if you miss that show, please check it out.
It's the July 31st episode of our show where we did a deep dive into that.
But what we learned through that episode is that children young people now feel a need to look a certain way.
So you have that on top of the, what am I going to do with my career?
Am I making as much money as my co-workers or my friends are?
So you have all those typical pressures that existed over the past decades.
And then you have this new stuff on top.
There's one more thing that I think we need to acknowledge that might not be obvious to people in the generation ahead of the Gen Z's climate anxiety.
Yes, I saw this too. It's a real, real thing.
This is what I found in a 2022 poll.
And by the way, this is via the Harvard political review.
It came out in 2023. And that's via CBS news.
Here's what they found.
Climate anxiety among international youth is at an all time high in 2022.
They did a poll. And the result was 59% of youth and young adults said they were very or extremely worried about climate change.
Okay, more than 45% said their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily life and how they function on a daily basis.
Now people in an older generation might think, what?
How does that affect your daily life?
Well, we can't pass it off as nothing.
They're telling us they're telling the world.
This is really, really stressful for them.
The things that we're seeing in the news every single day because the youth and we all are, but the youth, they're bombarded with this news every day about climate change.
And deforestation and the reduction in the animal kingdom and melting ice caps.
I mean, it's constant and they're stressed about it.
Yes, that's definitely a source of anxiety, especially if you can see that your city could be shrouded by dust from the natural fires.
And I think these climate change situations are just increasingly in our face.
And also just around the world, you know, this year there are a lot of elections happening around the world.
And a lot of, and we've seen that in certain places, there's, there might be a rise of populism.
And sometimes it is speaking to how people feel about the status quo and the future of their lives.
Can you achieve a similar, if not higher level of wealth than your parents generation?
And as a young person, you might be thinking about this.
And as parents, they could be thinking, well, you know, I've accumulated this after X amount of hard work.
Can my children enjoy this when they're at the same age as I am?
And then if your, if your answer is maybe not, then of course this is going to make people worry.
And don't forget young people live through the pandemic.
I mean, we all did, but young people did and they don't, they didn't know how to deal with that.
Their school lives were disrupted, their social lives, their dating lives were disrupted.
Life essentially stopped for these people for, for a good couple of years, if not more.
That plays a, plays a role as well.
Right. And we've listed some of these really big factors, maybe big waves happening in countries and people's lives.
And it can be very overwhelming.
And individuals can feel that's the bigger picture.
I'm feeling the consequences of it, but I can't change it.
Yeah. With my own effort.
Then as a young person living through all of this, how do you cope?
I think schools need to take a bigger responsibility for, for the, the mental well-being of their students.
I looked it up in Ontario, in Canada, Ontario's the province where they have Ottawa and Toronto.
They did a study. And what they found is that in the Ontario school system, 95% of schools reported they needed some or more support for students, mental health or well-being.
Only 9% of schools reported that they have regularly scheduled access to mental health and addiction specialists or nurses.
95% say they need it, 9% say they have it.
More support in schools.
This is where our young people spend the majority of their time.
We need to have people in those institutions who are there to help them where, where they are.
Yeah. I think here in Toronto, we do have this sort of similar either policy or trend that is mental health, well-being and so important.
And it's being increasingly discussed.
I think that is a very good thing because in previous times, even for young people, they can be reluctant to talk about their struggling with mental, either problems or they have this sort of anxiety.
And either with their parents or their peers or their teachers.
And somehow, there are certain stigma attached to this mental health.
Well-being and banality is being opened and discussed.
And there are more facilities and support being offered.
I mean, each university, they've established certain counseling department, which is quite important.
In time, we also need to recognize the emergency of supporting, I mean, offering more support to young people there because they are the future generation.
They are the future of our world.
And especially, yeah. And they're doing that in England or they're trying anyway.
In November of 2023, the government said they had 400 mental health support teams for about 3.4 million students.
That's about 35% of students.
They're looking to up that to 50% of students in England by April of next year.
So the problem is being recognized.
Yes. And it starts with everybody yourself.
I think pay attention to your well-being, physical, as well as emotionally, mentally, as well.
And then seeking help is always a strong trait rather than a week.
You're one of the bravest things you can do.
And that's the end of today's roundtable.
We will see you next time.
