In January 2023, the sixth Asia Pacific Chinese PR Awards had its closing. In the event, only two nominees won the prize of “the Most Influential Person of PR.” One is Ya-lan Chen, who won the first female Best Leading Actor award at Taiwan’s Golden Bell television awards and is famous for playing male roles, while the other is Chung-cheng Wu, the President of Jet-Go Consulting Group who is the founder of “Foundation of Strong Generation.”
In the previous interview, “Dr. Chun-cheng Wu, the President of Jet-GO Consulting Group: the issue of ‘Strong Generation’ will be a revolution signifying the liberation of the elder,” Mr. Wu mentioned three foundations on which the elaboration of the strong generation is based: personal social responsibility, corporate social responsibility, and government social responsibility, three of which would be key to the energy that motivates the strong generation.
In today’s interview, Chun-cheng Wu would lead us to get a more comprehensive view of the reason why Taiwan, which is geographically small, can be exemplary when it comes to the economy of “strong generation,” with the power to start a global revolution of “the spring of strong generation.”
The movement of “strong generation” is a worldwide revolution
The Strong Generation comes from the Baby Boom generation and have experienced high education, industrialization, globalization, securitization, and digitalization. They have hopped on the train of economic rise and possessed two-thirds of the wealth in the society. According to statistics, the median age of Taiwan’s population was 23.1 in 1980 while that of other countries, such as France, the U.S., Japan, and the U.K., was over 30.
“Back in the forties, girls would be brought into police stations just because they wore shorter clothes and skirts. Sometimes the media even reported these. But in the sixties, the feminist movement liberated women and the mind of the generation. With the same logic and spirit, I put forward ‘the strong generation movement’ in 2022, aiming at not only liberating the minds of the highly-aged people but also dealing with the stereotype of the whole society against the relevant issues. Based on the new statement of ‘strong generation,’ I want to change society from different perspectives: individual, society, and government.”
Chun-cheng Wu: I will start with “education”
Last October, the latest book written by Chun-Cheng Wu, “The Spring of the Strong Generation: Nine Predictions on the Liberation Movement of the Highly-aged People,” became the bestseller on Books.com.tw, the largest online bookstore in Taiwan, after one day since its release. His book focuses on ageing and low birth rate, offers solutions to those problems and mentions four topics – individual awakening, cultural activation, policy arousal, and industry arising. Besides, he boldly raised essential questions and proposes recommendations to ten government ministries which are relevant to the issues of the Strong Generation, inviting people to contemplate and discuss.
“Isn’t it ironic that Taiwan has the best health care system but the highest rate of people lying in bed? In Taiwan, people have to take care of those highly-aged people who are incapable of doing so for nine years. With the arrival of an ultra-aged society, would it be possible that family, society, and government all collapse one day? That is why I think it is a matter of ‘national security.’”
Chun-Cheng Wu remains devoted to the training courses of “Strong Generation Speaker” in Taiwan. His goal is to train 1,000 lecturers, and “it is crucial to let the Strong Generation be aware of the importance of themselves and discover that this revolution is not to become the new generation’s enemy but to create a better positive cycle in which their needs will be considered and turned into business opportunities for the youth.”
A new revolution originating from Taiwan to the world
According to the Industrial Technology Research Institute, the market scale of Taiwan’s gray hair industry would amount to NTD 3.6 trillion, while WHO estimates the gray hair industry worldwide will be up to NTD 1122 trillion. With this godsend advantage, Taiwan would be the first stop to launch the revolution of “the spring of strong generation.” Chun-cheng Wu thinks that this revolution is definitely going to spread to the whole world.
“It will start from Taiwan,” said Dr. Wu. “It is foreseeable that this kind of collective awakening would have an impact on countries whose median age is similar, such as China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia. Then it will spread to the Western nations. Despite the variety of global issues, we will not stop making this world a better place with the revolution of ‘the spring of the Strong Generation.”
