Best-seller writer Guo Jingming's directorial debut talks about youths of rich families, but the war of words that has followed its release has been between generations.

The film, Tiny Times, stars popular young actors, such as Yang Mi and Kai Ko, and portrays the lives and loves of four young women in Shanghai who study at a university that seems as beautiful as a palace and who live in a dormitory that looks like a princess' castle.

The film, which trounced Hollywood blockbuster Man of Steel at the box office, taking 200 million yuan ($32.38 million) in just three days, is Guo's answer to Gossip Girl and Sex and the City - only without the sex.

Yet the film has had many senior critics and filmmakers up in arms at its portrayal of the younger generation, plus frequent exposure of luxury goods and often rough movie-making techniques.

Celebrated critic Raymond Zhou said, "the flaunting of wealth in the film has reached pathological levels", while director Gao Qunshu said the film is "taking advantage of young people's passion for idols".

Their comments elicited an immediate counterpunch from young filmgoers, some of whom would rise to any harsh words against Guo. "You are too old to understand this movie" was a common riposte. "We just love him (Guo) and that's none of your business" was another.

The target audience for the film was the post-1990 generation, which grew up with a booming economy and a booming Internet. Even though most young viewers can only dream of living that kind of lifestyle, they can identify with the characters.

But is it a case of art imitating life or life imitating art?

Critics of the film say it sets a bad example for young people and celebrates a get-rich-quick mentality or an extravagant lifestyle uncharacteristic of most youths in the country. Guo's fans say his critics are just jealous of his success, and they are fiercely protective of him as they see him as the voice of their generation.

Perhaps the furor is to be expected, given that Guo is no stranger to controversy and well versed in marketing his own success story to an aspirational young audience.

Guo, 30, has long been an icon among teenagers and young adults, and for seven years he has been topping the best-selling fiction list.

"Readers born in the 1980s and 1990s see no connection to their lives there. They want to read about their lives," Guo said in an interview with China Daily last year. He certainly succeeds in banking in their lives for box office returns.

The changes in Chinese society have been so rapid that there is also a generation gap between the post-1990s generation and the post-1980s generation. For example, those born in the early 1980s were told that gaokao, or the college entrance exam, was the only doorway to a comfortable life, but for the post-1990s generation, especially those in big cities, there are other doors they can try.

The transformations that have occurred in China since 1990 are so dramatic that the generation gaps seem to be ever more evident, resulting in a wider debate on how well Confucian precepts can live in today's society.

When people of the older generation worry a film is preaching the wrong values to young people, it is not hard for them to realize that today's society is unrecognizable to the one they grew up in.

While the fast changing society has made many ponder, the Internet offers a window where young people can view a bewildering variety of lifestyles not necessarily agreeable to people of advanced age.

Even Shi Hang, a renowned critic and scriptwriter and one of the harshest critics of Tiny Times, admitted that martial arts novels, which he is a big fan of, were frowned upon by most teachers and parents when he was a teenager.

Today young people's choices are much more diversified than those Shi had when he was young. Many of those who rushed to watch Tiny Times may also watch The Bling Ring, Sofia Coppola's latest movie, which is based on the true story of a gang of wealthy Los Angeles youngsters who burgled the homes of celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Orlando Bloom in a bid to enjoy high life. They were caught, of course, and are now the warning of the perils of trying to take a shortcut to success.

The current debate, echoing the eternal theme of generation gap in humanity, should serve as a reminder for each generation to really hear the others. But the different ideas themselves embody the vigor and vitality of today's China.

The author is a journalist with China Daily. E-mail: liuw@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/06/2013 page5)