The Atlantic reports:

It's happened all over the world, and it's happening in China, too. As the country's middle class swells in number -- and its people discover the pleasures and disappointments of a life spent  pursuing material comfort -- there has come the emergence of a distinct  counter-culture. In Chinese, they are the wenyi qingnian (文艺青年), or wenqing for short, literally meaning "cultured youth." It's China's closest  equivalent to the alternately beloved and reviled English word, "hipster."

What does a typical "cultured youth" look like? Baidu Baike, China's  version of Wikipedia, contains an entry on the term that quotes writer  and musician Guo Xiaohan: "I'm a very typical wenyi qingnian. I like poetry, novels, indie music, European cinema, taking pictures,  writing blogs, cats, gardening, quilting, making dessert and designing  environmentally friendly bags."

They are twee, nostalgia-driven, and hipster-ish, with a dash of  poet. Spiritual at heart, yet living in a very secular, money-driven  modern China, wenqing are marked as highly individualistic, romantic, cultural connoisseurs.

Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/11/china-has-hipsters-too/264414/