Maya Skeele, Anthropology
Nepal is a small Third World country that lies between Tibet and India. Globalization has played an increasingly large role in Nepali culture as it has introduced new political, economic, and cultural concepts to the country and led to a growing middle class that is not from the traditional high caste elite. This group seeks to educate their children in American and European universities in order to qualify for jobs at home and abroad. This paper connects education to a new emerging youth culture whose values significantly differ from that of their parents’, creating a generation gap. Exposure to international influences has generated a new youth culture among Nepali students who seek to find a balance between traditional Nepali values and those which they learn though education, technology, social media, and popular culture. Parents of this generation often do not fully understand this predicament and find it hard to relate to their child’s shifting identity, leading to a generational gap between children and their parents.