Y to be 'Strawberry Generation'?
By Alice Fong

Miss Cheong was found lying on the platform in Tai Po by a policeman on October 14, 2013.  She jumped from a building because of failure in keeping fit; dead despite rescue efforts, a Hong Kong media reported.

Nowadays, youths might feel stressed out because of school scores, love, family, social relationships, the stature and so on. They have become the social group that registers a mounting rate of suicides in the world. They are named "the strawberry generation" who are between 15-24 years old.

The strawberry generation is a Taiwanese term describing those born in 1980's and 1990s that are commonly believed to "bruise easily" like strawberries because they can't bear social pressure. They are reputed to be insubordinate, spoiled, selfish, arrogant, and sluggish at work.
According to the research project by the Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention (CSRP), Hong Kong now has a high rate of youth suicides in the world.  And evidence suggests the trend continues sharply upwards.

"Pressure isn't built up in a day but in a long period of time. It grows depending on the environment, personality (acquired element), ability to overcome and social environments," said Dr. Lam Kin Wing, Assistant Professor of Faculty of Education (FED) in University of Macau (UM).
"The parents are over protecting their children who easily give up," Lam explained.  Parents nowadays are always afraid of their children getting hurt.
Actually, adversity is good for them. They can learn how to achieve and build up their confidence during the process, be it housework, school work or interpersonal relationships."

"Teenagers need chances, not adults' replacement!" said Lam. Adults always use their way to help their children to solve problems. They need chances to do things by themselves. They also need supporters. Their friends, schoolmates, teachers and parents can all be one of them. If we had been trained to obtain the ability of emotional compression from childhood, there wouldn't have been so many "strawberry" kids.

Currently, people would like to use the "pudding generation" or "tofu generation" to describe those who "bruise" more easily than strawberries. They don't have many survival skills. In their daily life, many things have been settled for them. They don't need to care about eating, dressing or economical pressure.

Miss Chan is a local Year 4 student who was deeply hurt by a relationship. She had even a suicide attempt at the beginning. Then she recovered. She said, "I should not give up, I still have many people who love me so much." She got better step by step.

People won't die when they love. Where there is a life, there is a hope. Youths should be stronger, don't be strawberries, pudding or tofu anymore.