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By Yu Yajing, Guest Reporter

 

Along with the development of the national economy, great changes have taken place in university students' ideas about consumption and consumption activities. University students’ consumption behavior has become more diversified all over the world. They can go to karaoke halls, internet-bars, video arcades pubs or clubs, private institutes, or cafés.

However, because of traditional elements and economic status, it seems like that the consumption cultures of each country are different from each other. For example, as heavy-drinking culture is prevalent in the Korean society, it’s also prevalent among Korean university students. They drink after school, after the examinations, and after some events. Sometimes I think the university students drink too much and they spend too much money on alcohol consumption. Many Korean friends have asked me, “Aren’t Chinese people good at drinking alcohol?” But the answer is, maybe some of them are good at drinking, but the drinking culture is not as popular among Chinese university students. In China, most university students enter universities which are not in their hometown, so most of them have to live in the dormitories which areunder centralized management and regulation by the school: you should be back in your dormitory before 11p.m or 12a.m before lights-out, otherwise some points will be deducted from your school records, so almost all the recreational facilities and restaurants are built around the dormitory. Due to this system, life after classes for Chinese university students is not as rich and diverse as that of Korean students. But with the increase of Chinese university enrollment rate and the increasing number ofuniversity students coming from different provinces and regions, the different consumption behaviors and patterns of differentminority group in different areas are also introduced into school.

When I went to the U.S as a visiting student, I observed that American university students’ consumption ideas and activities are such different from those of Asians.They don’t spend a lot of time on dressing themselves up like many Asian students. Instead, they spend much more money on doing sports after school. There are many big recreation centers at the university, always full of people after school and even early in the morning. Chinese students don’t exercise as much as American ones, but when the athletic competitions are held between the departments or classes, almost all the students attend the event for team spirit. However, it seems that Korean university students do not exercise as often as students of other countries. They drink a lot, but pay less attention to their own health.

In my opinion, it is important for university students to improve their quality of life, but the most important thing is to promote their full physical and mental development, so consumption activities should not only exist in terms of entertainment and having fun but students should also pay more attention to personal physical development.