STRAWBERRY GENERATION

China's "Strawberry Generation" of young adults has been blamed on parents who are far too lenient and overindulgent of their children's every whim and fancy to the point of spoiling them.

The term references the sweet looking fruit that's sometimes sour on the inside, and the label has been slapped on kids born after 1980. These "strawberry cupcakes" are also deemed too lazy to do any work hard and too weak to deal with the realities of life in the real world.

Several recent incidents have been making the rounds on China's social media sites. Last month, a boy threatened to kill himself by lying in the middle of a busy street if his dad refused to get him a car. Another slapped his mother in public for presenting him with a fake iPhone.

One girl screamed at her mum in public and reduced her to tears when her mum couldn't afford to pay for her iPhone, her iPad and her MacBook. And another threatened her parents that she would drop out of university if they wouldn't get her an iPhone.

In the case of 21-year-old Xu and his traffic-stopping stunt in Chongqing City, he had demanded a 150,000 yuan (RM75,000) car from his 50-year-old dad who runs a scaffolding business. The car, he said, was one of the requirements put forth by his fiancée's family in order for them to get married.

He had tried that trick before and twisted his dad's arm into giving him a 3,000 yuan computer, neighbours said. However, when his dad turned him down for the car, Xu dashed to the street and planked himself on the road. His dad was forced to promise to take a loan and deliver the car at the end of year.

Days later, however, Xu again demanded for the car but now he wanted it right away. When his dad said no, Xu attacked the family van with a fire extinguisher and smashed all its windows. He then laid down on Pan Long Road again—but this time motorists called the cops and they came to haul him off.