Slashing away to forge new identities

Online opportunities abound for those seeking different roles as they unleash their creativity

The “Slash Generation” are leading double lives as they experience the thrill of different identities. The “Slash” are not in it just for the cash, though financial rewards are always appreciated, as the age of the Internet and mass information provides them a chance to explore different roles in a way previous generations could only dream of.

Explaining their multiple lives to other people requires punctuation: the forward slash.

At their normal workplace they are, say, a teacher from 9 to 5, from 6 to 7 they may be an online flower arranger and from 8 to 10 they could be a film reviewer.

Teacher/flower arranger/ film reviewer/cafe owner/ festival organizer/designer/ DJ/bookseller, the forward slash is an identity marker for these careerists (literally) who are trying to utilize all their skills, and blend their “normal’’ life with what they would like to do.

But it is important to note that money or monetary rewards, for the “Slash Generation” or the “Slashes”, are not their driving force. In an age of austerity it is not unusual for people to take on an extra job to pay the bills but for the Slash Generation their motivation is not primarily to improve their bank balance but to unleash their creativity.

The concept was first introduced by a New York Times columnist Marci Alboher, who in her 2007 book One Person/ Multiple Careers: A New Model for Work/Life Success, used “slash” to refer to people with multiple careers.

Alboher pointed out that “slashing has also taken hold overseas” and some living on the other side of the planet are discovering how punctuated careers can integrate and satisfy multiple passions, talents and interests that a single career may be unable to match.

“My work is my life,’’ said 30-year-old Po Yu Cheng, who came to Beijing from Taipei in 2015, and is a maker-space project manager/market researcher/PR advisor/consultant/hotel owner/communication promoter.

Six jobs don’t bother him, Cheng told China Daily, as they are “interconnected” by facilitating people-to-people exchanges between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland.

In a maker-space in Beijing, Cheng worked as a project manager to help Taiwan entrepreneurs through consulting and financial investment. He also decorated his hotel to make his clients feel more at home. He then set up a youth association to promote communication between young people from Taiwan and the Chinese mainland.

“I think people-to-people exchanges are crucial to the development of cross-Straits relations, but when I first came to the Chinese mainland in the 1990s, I found it very hard to get cash from my bank account in Taiwan or to find a place to stay with all the facilities I was familiar with, although there is no language barrier here,” Cheng said.

“My parents wanted me to be a civil servant, you know, live close to them, get married, have kids, wait for retirement,’’ Cheng said. “But the idea of doing the same thing for the rest of my life really freaked me out, I could not even imagine what that would be.”

It was time, he thought, for a new direction.

“I started playing different roles in life since college and I consider the change of roles essential to my well-being as it provides me with a more creative outlet. It made me feel really good when you made a difference in a new area which you used to know nothing about,’’ he said.

But there are only so many hours in a day and living a full professional life can have con- sequences in the private sphere. Although Cheng loves his jobs, enjoys his life and has somehow managed to juggle various identities, he confessed that finding the time to have a girlfriend has been problematic.

“Two girlfriends dumped me for the same reason that I was too busy to give them the attention. My parents complained about me not having a girlfriend, but I think things will get better when my careers develop, I mean, when I became a boss and don’t need to do everything by myself.’’

Zhu Huachen has been more fortunate in this regard. A Beijing native, born in 1986, Zhu is a real estate investor/ financial business promoter/ rock festival organizer. His girlfriend, he said, has always been “supportive”.

“All the roles I have taken on mean that I don’t have to be in an office all day and my girlfriend and I can always find time to fit our dates into my tight schedule,’’ Zhu said.

There is also another difference. Unlike Cheng, who was focusing on many fronts, Zhu is really concentrating on making his rock festival famous in China.

“I don’t want to be a slash all the time, I am trying to save money and hoping that one day, I can blend what I really love with what makes money,’’ he said.

But some of the Slash Gen- eration do consider the financial returns.

Growing up in Xianghe, Hebei province, 30-year-old Kang Chao is a designer/visual artist/tutor, but his true passion lies in becoming an independent artist in the visual arts.

Upon graduating from the University of the Arts, London, in 2011, Kang became a user interface designer of a government website in 2013 and a tutor in an art education training center that year.

Adding a slash to his career by necessity, not by choice, Kang said doing only what he likes does not pay the bills in a major city like Beijing.

Art and design may seem as if they are from the same stable but actually they are incompatible with each other, Kang said. Art is about expressing your own ideas in your works while design is a business to meet the demands of your clients.

“For people dedicated to their art, no one can guarantee a steady income or a promis- ing future, so I have to be a designer to make ends meet and doing what I love in my spare time.’’

Kang is confident that he will make the breakthrough in the visual arts, but he is also aware that his company may demand that he becomes “slashless” to give them more of his energy.

Liu Xuezhi, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Personnel Science said that the Slash Generation could set a trend as the Internet had made it possible for people to satisfy their creative yearnings.

“It (the Internet) formed an ecosystem, so there are bountiful resources for the Slash Generation to develop,’’ Liu said.

From the employment perspective, Liu said of course there are companies looking for full-time specialists to focus on only one area, but there are also a number of bosses who want to hire members of the Slash Generation both for their creativity and because it can help “slash” costs.

CAI MENG / CHINA DAILY