Online lecture series addresses an age of self-doubt for young people

Youth, the saying goes, is wasted on the young. Possessing energy and vitality, but generally very little money and not yet fully versed in the glories that life has to offer.

Their focus can be dominated by doubts about study, work prospects, where to live and finding a possible partner.

Job insecurity also plays a part, as does sometimes trying to fulfill parental expectations at the expense of their own ambitions. Trying to please others and not yourself is always a recipe for inner turmoil.

In 2018, when Bai Yansong, a renowned TV anchor at China Central Television, launched online talk show Stand Bai You, he said he wanted to address these insecurities and feelings of inadequacy.

He expected to share his experience with the youth who are not studying at "prestigious colleges "and for whom life is a daily challenge.

Growing up in a small city in the far northeastern part of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and becoming one of the nation's best recognized news anchors, his story seems to be an unqualified success against the odds.

Bai's program is now in its third season, which premiered in May on streaming media platform Youku, an arm of internet conglomerate Alibaba. Douban, China's main TV and film review website, gave it a rating of 8.3 points out of a total of 10.

However, this season, like everything else recently, had to be adapted to meet external challenges.

Bai has been unable to appear in this season's program, due to a busy schedule hosting news programs related to COVID-19. Luckily, other household names, authors, TV anchors and scholars have taken an interest in the challenges facing our youth.

"We'd like to invite the best recognized celebrities in cultural circles, to share their stories and encourage young people," Wang Liming, a content supervisor from Youku and the producer of Stand Bai You, tells China Daily. "And, they have to be good at talking."

In the new season, one of the speakers, Ma Weidu, a veteran antique collector and museum operator, chooses the seemingly metaphysical topic "the meaning of life" for his speech, given in front of thousands of college students on campus at a university in Xi'an, Shaanxi province.

The 65-year-old uses humor and a youthful term of phrase to recall his early years in collecting circles and coming face to face with failure.

He recounts that, in the late 1980s, he was interested in an antique bowl. However, the asking price of 30,000 yuan (roughly $8,000 at that time) seemed a touch exorbitant. It was bought by someone else and resold in an auction house six months later for nearly 10 million yuan.

"Sometimes, you miss an opportunity," Ma says in the show. "It's normal in life that things don't always go as you wish. However, the way you deal with these misfortunes shows whether you are grown up or not."