It's two in the afternoon, and who could not but be taken by surprise walking the streets of Taipei--besides the housewives with tots in tow, there are young girls and teenage boys all around. . . . As your eye travels over the thousands of people in the human tide walking past you, each face looks quite at ease.

At this time of the day, is it possible they don't have to go to work or be in school?

How much do you know about the leisure class of youth? The Directorate General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics of the Executive Yuan has released a figure that provides a lead: According to an October 1990 survey, among people in the Taiwan area aged 15 to 24, there are 517,000 "leisure youth" who have neither tested into the next level of education nor gone to work. Compared to the previous two surveys (1987 and 1988) the new figure is higher by 56,000 and 85,000 people!

Are these numbers startling? In a society that emphasizes "tragedy in old age if there is no hard work while young," there are so many people with "time on their hands" who are neither engaging in productive activity nor in self-improvement. Is this a sign that our society is sick?

Fortunately, if you look at the figures more closely, the situation is not as serious as one might imagine. Chang Pei Chi, director of the Manpower Planning Department of the Council for Economic Planning and Development in the Executive Yuan, points out that of these more than 510,000 people, about 40% (or nearly 210,000) have the goal of testing into the next level of education. They are either studying at home or cramming in a supplementary school, and their level of commitment and hard work is no less than that of the students in the regular education system, so they should be considered as outside the scope of the "leisure class."

Of the remaining 300,000, 136,000 are women in the 20-24 age bracket who have neither advanced in their education nor gone to work because of "household responsibilities." Although today's women show a trend of increasingly late marriage, for the period from 1979 to 1988 the average age of first marriage for already married women was 21.3. "Most of these women who stay out of the workforce have already married or have decided to marry, and often have the traditional idea that 'well anyway I'll have to quit when I have a child, so I might as well just stay home,'" says Chang Pei Chi. This so-called "leisure" is also understandable.

Besides those studying for school entrance exams and those taking responsibilities at home, it is also necessary to deduct those looking for work, those preparing to take exams for jobs determined by examination, those undergoing professional training, those waiting for their military service to begin, and those with health problems or handicaps. There are actually no more than 43,000 leisure youth who have no "appropriate reason" to be idle. Of these, 23,000 are boys, with girls not far behind with 20.000.

In any case, no matter what the reason for staying idle, the 517,000 persons who have neither advanced educationally nor gone to work account for 15% of Taiwan's 3.3 million young people. In particular, the rapid increase in the last three years is really not something to be neglected. Why, after all, can't these young people find a place where they belong?

Nothing is as important as testing into the next grade: "From a statistical analysis, of course the main reason is that after the rise in national income, the number of people willing to go right to work after finishing their studies is less and less, and most of them still hope to move on to higher education," says Peng Huo-yen, vice director of the Department of Technical and Vocational Education at the Ministry of Education.

In the October 1990 version of the same survey, more than 90% of the middle and high school students intended to go on to the next level of education. The problem is that of students in professional schools and technical schools (which normally prepare students for immediate employment after graduation) and of students in university (which is ordinarily seen as the "last step" in education), a full 65%, 51%, and 62% of students respectively hope to "go on to more advanced education after graduation"!

With so many students hoping to continue studying, and only a limited number of positions, it's not unusual to see students just end up going in and out of examination preparatory schools, killing two or three years. To go a step further, "not only do today's students all want to keep studying, they all want to get into the best schools," notes Peng Huo-yen.

Taking middle school students, for example, the problem is not so much the intensity of the competition. In fact, taking the whole Taiwan area into account, educational resources are at present rather abundant. Various channels for continued education including high school, professional high schools, five-year technical schools and educational extension programs can handle all of the middle school graduates in the country with room to spare. Despite this, in this survey there are 40,000 "fourth year middle school heroes" aged 15 to 17 who say they are neither continuing their educations nor going to work because they must "cram" to do better on future exams.

"To put it metaphorically, though every carrot has its hole in the ground, it's not necessarily the hole that makes it most happy or that fits it best, and there are those who long for a bigger and better hole," is how Chin Shu-jen, professor of Educational Psychology and Counseling at National Taiwan Normal University, puts it.

Just "put out to pasture"?! In order to find a better tomorrow, middle school and professional high school students are wavering between taking exams to move on to the next level of education and getting a job. Even more than half of university and college students, for whom it was no mean feat to get into their institutions in the first place, hope to go on to more advanced education. To get to the bottom line, it's still a side effect of that traditional view of placing educated people on a pedestal-- that "a diploma is king."

Hwang Jen-te, associate professor of Economics at National Chengchi University, points out that Taiwan is one of the areas of the world with the highest proportion of Ph.D. recipients. If you just look at leading government officials, opinion leaders in society and the new generation of entrepreneurs, most have amazing academic credentials to "back them up." Under these circumstances, it is useless to try to convince young people that "every profession has its value" or that "academic credentials are not equivalent to ability."

Further, educational and social resources today are definitely concentrated on young people who have the ability to "get into a good school and find a good career." If you have the misfortune to fall into the "B" category of middle school students, or end up in a private trade or technical school of uncertain and uneven quality, or in a small factory that doesn't even get a second glance, then you had better get used to your fill of the bitterness of being "put out to pasture." The self-esteem and self confidence of these children is low, and they can only vent their anger on the "hole" that will take them--"This isn't what I want to do!" Given this type of embittered, self-defeating psychology, it's doubly difficult to ask them to settle in and accept their fate. The turnover and withdrawal rates at private schools and the turnover at small factories are both high, which is a reflection of this mindset.

When the going gets tough, does the new generation get out? Another reason causing young people to have difficulty settling down is the financial relationship with their parents.

"Overseas, parents see their eighteen-year-old sons and daughters as adults, and will rarely pay their living expenses for them," notes Hwang Jen-te. But in Taiwan, many parents are pained at seeing their children "working to exhaustion and frustration, and earning so little each month--just resign and forget it." Especially for young women, this type of "dependent unemployment," where "it doesn't make any difference if I let Mom and Dad take care of me for a few more years," is commonplace.

Although this type of economic dependence can avoid the problems of many foreign youth having to turn to crime or prostitution for lack of money, it nevertheless indirectly encourages the habit of idleness and leisure. In the survey, after subtracting young people preparing for educational entrance exams, looking for work, or doing professional training, of the 230,000 so-called "youth who are neither studying nor employed, and have no employment or study goal," 183,000 quite openly stated that they "didn't feel like working," and most were in this situation.

Besides schools and families, it is also necessary not to overlook the impact of social factors on young people. Hsiao Chien-hsun, director of the Office of Employment Guidance at the Employment and Vocational Training Administration in the Council of Labor Affairs in the Executive Yuan, points out that Taiwan has gotten wealthier extremely rapid ly in the past few years, and the rampancy of "money games" and speculation has to some ex tent eroded the will to work. The desire to get rich quick permeated society, and naturally impressionable young people were quick to follow suit.

It is just as in Japan, where young people have three "taboos" in looking for work--if the work is dangerous, dirty or demeaning. And in Taiwan, you now need to add a fourth--if the job title sounds bad. These are usually unwelcome to young people. School bulletin boards are covered with notices from factories looking for workers, but no one responds to them, and the students would rather find something outside on their own.

Where the service industry is king: So what kind of jobs attract young people? Naturally it's the service industry. "What one comes in contact with in the service industry is people, the work is not strenuous and it is more upbeat, and you can get all dressed up. In comparison, even if the pay is better, the monotonous and dirty manufacturing industry, where one spends all day with a machine, can't retain young people," concludes Yang Chin-sheng, president of the Taipei Municipal Ta-an Industrial High School.

Statistically, the percentage of employed young people working in the service industry has steadily increased from 37% in 1986 to 43% in 1988 to 52% in 1990, reflecting the general trend.

The biases in the employment attitudes of young people is an inevitable product rubbed off from society at large. The splendrous seductions offered in the mass media make young people even more irresolute. If the young people can't control themselves and go off on the wrong track--for example girls go off to work in low-brow clubs and sex parlors or boys become guards in video arcades--then their chances for coming in contact with drugs and organized crime are greatly increased. Just as in the true juvenile crime story Young Ah-Hsing, many young people go from just fooling around, from having nothing to do, to losing their way and in the end muddling into committing some crime. This is the worst possible outcome of idle youth, and is the nightmare of many social workers.

To prevent this disastrous outcome, argues Soochow University Sociology Professor Yang Hsiao-shen, besides rectifying social mores and achieving close coordination among schools, families, occupational training and the police, the firm implementation of the Youth Social Welfare Law cannot be ignored. "For example, it is stipulated in the law that those under eighteen are not permitted into video arcades, to buy cigarettes or alcohol, or to see adult films. All these are measures to protect children from being polluted by bad social habits, and they are the responsibility of all of society and there must not be laxness," concludes Yang.

To fool around or settle down? Of course, all people who have passed through youth can understand the indecision, rashness and rebelliousness of that age. "Children of this age group naturally lack stability," notes Chen Mei-chih, head of guidance counseling at the Hoping Middle School. Fortunately, only a small number remain out of school and out of work for a long period. The most common situation is to leave one school and transfer to another or to leave one job and change to another--so-called "frictional unemployment" (or "frictional non-attendance at school").

"Adults ordinarily are responsible for the family's well-being, and even if dissatisfied with their work still grit their teeth and 'ride the mule while keeping your eye out for a horse,' only getting off the mule when they actually find a horse. But young people don't think so much, and in fact think things are easier than they are," points out Hwang Jen-te.

One could find countless examples: A girl named Ma, a graduate of a certain business trade school in Kaohsiung, who came to Taipei alone to find her fortunes, changed jobs four or five times in two years. Although she was so broke that she had to think twice even before buying a newspaper to check the help wanted ads, whenever she felt like it she just up and left her NT$16,000 or 17,000 per month job (about US$650) for any one of a number of reasons, without the slightest regret.

A young woman named Wang, seventeen, left her music class at an arts school, and after hanging around the house for six months had her mother print up glossy "Private Studio" cards; but she was less than ambitious about looking for students. So next semester she is preparing to enter the music class at a vocational school. As for this process of leaving school, leisure time and transferring, her attitude is quite indifferent: anyway, staying around the house playing piano and reading, she passed her days quite contentedly.

Of course, the reason why some young people scoff at "settling down" is because they have seen too many adults trapped in patterns, slowing losing their identity, and so they resist this in their hearts. A Miss Chiang, who was formerly a "leisure youth" now working as a sales girl in the retail outlet of a computer manufacturer, describes her days at home hanging out as full of creativity and vitality. But now, on the contrary, every day when she opens her eyes she feels a strange sense of loss and exhaustion: "another meaningless working day."

One hole per carrot? Although these voices of youth are sincere, one cannot evade the reality and responsibilities of life, and must face them sooner or later. Jen-te Hwang says that no matter how you look at it, everyone must find a place where they belong, and find a goal to which to devote oneself. To stay outside the patterns of adult life and just hang out means to waste the most precious period of life of learning skills and knowledge. Also, given the disapproving attitude of others, it will be hard to avoid a decline in self-respect and self- esteem, which will have a negative influence on long-term prospects. At the same time, it is also a great waste of educational resources, social re sources and economic development.

One hole per carrot--can you find yours?

The Situation of Young People Aged 15-24 Who Are Neither in School nor Employed, October 1990[Picture]

[Picture Caption]

Facing a decisive period for the remainder of their lives, young people cannot but hesitate and wrack their brains.

Can these naive and curious children recognize the hidden significance of the square cap and black gown?

(Left) On "Supplementary School Street" (Nanyang Street), known as the most densely populated location in Taipei City, youthful faces squeeze past cheek to jowl, coming together for a brief year before going their separate ways.

On average, a student at a technical or vocational school uses 1.8 times the educational resources of a student at an ordinary high school. Learning a skill and then putting it to use is the only way not to let d own others' expectations.

Don't look down upon "dirty hands." Repairing a car takes great knowledge, and you can't get away with mediocrity. The photo shows a class at the Ta-an Industrial Hi gh School.

The service industry, with its light work and opportunity to get dressed up every day, has since 1990 surpassed the manufacturing sector to become the employment of choice for more than half of working young people.

Vigorous youth need some appropriate leisure activities to allow them to use up all that energy.

After being unsure which way to go, now looking to the future, let's hope that each and every young person can have hope and courage. (Sinorama file photo)

Can these naive and curious children recognize the hidden significance of the square cap and black gown?

（Left） On "Supplementary School Street" （Nanyang Street）, known as the most densely populated location in Taipei City, youthful faces squeeze past cheek to jowl, coming together for a brief year before going their separate ways.

On average, a student at a technical or vocational school uses 1.8 times the educational resources of a student at an ordinary high school. Learning a skill and then putting it to use is the only way not to let d own others' expectations.

Don't look down upon "dirty hands." Repairing a car takes great knowledge, and you can't get away with mediocrity. The photo shows a class at the Ta-an Industrial Hi gh School.

The service industry, with its light work and opportunity to get dressed up every day, has since 1990 surpassed the manufacturing sector to become the employment of choice for more than half of working young people.

Vigorous youth need some appropriate leisure activities to allow them to use up all that energy.