I read a story about a video featuring a dama (a late-middle-aged woman, literally a "big mother") pressing her daughter to have a baby in your newspaper. The video has created quite a stir since it went viral online last Tuesday.

Leaning on her trolley in a supermarket, the anxious mother is flaying her daughter in a Northeastern accent, grumbling about her girl, who is in her late 20s, wasting her time without having a baby. "If you don't get pregnant now, you will soon suffer from menopause." In addition, the annoyed mother claims the Chinese government formulated the new second-child policy in a bid to shame young people like her.

Sharp tone and the particular humor of the northeastern dialect mixed with amusing slangs have gained this dama incredible popularity overnight. What she says has struck a chord among an increasing number of parents of similar age and also aroused wide sympathy among young people toward her daughter. It is a dramatic reflection that the gap between the younger Chinese generation and their parents over kids is becoming more and more conspicuous.

Late marriage and late childbirth has become a choice of tens of millions of young Chinese in recent years, especially in big cities. The number of unmarried people above the age of 30 keeps rising. Research shows that China is witnessing its fourth wave of singlehood since 1949, which is predicted to last longer than the first three.

The phenomenon is the norm across the developed world. From the US to Scandinavia, from Tokyo to Seoul, young men and women are more and more reluctant to settle down in married life and have children.

Now the mood has arrived most Chinese metropolises and even second- and third-tier cities. Well-educated and highly paid young people attach importance to quality of life and advocate an individualized lifestyle. They are loath to be constrained by the stress and costs of having children in their early-20s like their parents and grandparents did.

In addition, living under enormous work pressure aggravated by prohibitive living costs, they have to design long-term plans for having babies. Everyone wants to give their children the best living environment and superior education. Many of my friends born in the 1980s claim they will not have children until they can take full responsibility for themselves and a vulnerable new life as well. But they are severely scolded by their parents, defenders of the traditional values of carrying on the family line.

The trend of late marriage and childbearing comes as an inevitable result of China's vigorous economic growth and the burgeoning middle class. This can be viewed as a progress since it gives individuals more freedom in choosing their own lifestyle.

Nonetheless, Chinese society is confronted with the dual challenges of an aging population and a low birth rate. How to strike a balance between individual freedom and sustainable social development will test collective wisdom in the future.

Wang Xiaonan, a freelance writer based in Beijing