Artical Share-The Values of Chinese Youth

Vice President of Central Communist Youth League School in China Warns of Postmodern Values, Populist Sentiments, and Extreme Nationalism Among Youth, Advocates for Enhanced Social Support

For today’s episode, I decided to refocus on the values of Chinese youth. The pieces I bring today come from Professor Lian Si（廉思), an excellent social scientist focusing on the values of different generations of Chinese youth. He coined the term "ant tribe" to describe college graduates' lives by comparing them with ants: "They share every similarity with ants. They live in colonies in cramped areas. They're intelligent and hardworking, yet anonymous and underpaid."

During my time working for Bilibili Group, I had the chance to communicate with him several times about the different social values among Chinese youth. I was astonished by his knowledge and great empathy for the youth and their living conditions.

In addition to being a renowned Sociologist, he holds another title: the Vice President of the Central Communist Youth League School. Given the level of information he has access to in this position, his observations carry added credibility. I found this piece on the official site of CCYLS. I know many of my readers may not agree with his points of view and conclusion, but his observation is very helpful in getting a basic understanding of Chinese youth values and some of the latest trends.

There are significant disparities among Chinese youth in different aspects. At the national level, they highly identify with China's development path and are full of confidence in the country's future development. They have begun to construct their own imagination of the "nation" and view the world as equals. At the social level, the divide between different values has widened, and youth subcultures are gradually flourishing. However, at the individual level, immense social competition pressure has led to growing anxiety among young people about their own development prospects, and the tension between the "struggle" narrative and personal anxiety is increasing. The main risks include the deconstruction of social meaning by postmodern values, the irrational fueling of social opposition by online populism, which erodes social consensus, and the emergence of extreme nationalism, resulting in self-imposed isolation among a portion of the youth population.

here I attach the link: https://www.cyu.edu.cn/xwzx/llyj/202405/t20240502_116313.html

The values of Chinese youth in the new era

1. The general background of the values of contemporary youth

Today's youth, mainly the "post-90s" and "post-00s" generations, have similar growing environments, development stages, and major events they've experienced. This has laid the foundation for their overall positive, healthy, and upward values. They are a generation full of vitality, rich in knowledge, with a broad vision, open-mindedness, and confidence. They are a generation that is lovely, trustworthy, and capable.

At the national level: Youth strongly identify with China's development path and imagine their own vision of the nation.

Today's youth have seen China, led by the Communist Party, achieve major goals like becoming a moderately prosperous society and ending extreme poverty. This has greatly shaped their political views and values. Western efforts to hold back China's tech progress have made youth question Western ideas of "freedom" and "democracy" and see Western double standards more clearly. Over 30 surveys by the author's research group, covering different groups of young people, show that they strongly approve of China's current political, economic, and social development. They firmly believe in the Communist Party's people-oriented approach, are optimistic about China's future, and view the current social systems positively.

These youth are the "strong nation generation" committed to China's unique path to modernization. They want a stable, civilized, law-based society and are confident in China's future. This confidence comes from growing up in a time of rising national strength and better lives, as well as having more support and fewer struggles in their own growth.

Unlike past generations, youth today who have seen China's rapid rise identify more with the country. They express patriotism in new ways and even view the country like a celebrity, feeling responsible for its success. They see China as an equal to the West.

Youth today don't just passively accept mainstream ideas but actively shape the meaning of the nation themselves. They imagine an ideal future in China that is open, strong, united, inclusive, and prosperous, and they project their own hopes onto it. Their perspective can help shape China's national image. They firmly believe China will achieve its goals of becoming a modern socialist country and realizing the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation. To them, the Communist Party, which leads this process, truly cares for the people, upholds justice, and deserves their full support. The Party is the most worthy "star" for them to follow.

Social level: The spectrum of values is widening, and youth subcultures are becoming increasingly popular

As jobs, work relationships, and lifestyles become more varied, the number of young people working in new areas is growing. Youth groups are splitting into more categories, and this trend is speeding up. Different groups have different interests and ideas. Research shows that some youth groups (like gig workers and small-town youth) are less connected to official organizations and the government. Some are even outside the system. They think more traditionally than other groups (like students and government workers).

Young people today want better lives but also rank values differently. Surveys show that young people have diverse social attitudes and value choices. Some are wealthy, while others struggle to get by. Some care more about efficiency, others about fairness. Some choose to be single for freedom; others commit to one partner for stability. Young people often have very different views on social issues.

Youth subcultures are also getting popular. They help young people show their unique identities. Subcultures in China are becoming more diverse, fun, and based on social circles. They give youth a sense of belonging, let them find like-minded friends, share ideas, and express themselves. Subcultures also let youth work together, learn, and grow. They provide a space for young people to express immature thoughts and extra energy.

In subcultures, youth form casual groups with similar people but also find different people online. Mobile technology and social media let them play many roles and connect in many ways all at once. Instead of just official sources, some groups now have their own ways to interpret and talk about real issues. By discussing topics together, youth expand social circles, change relationships, and create new communities and social classes that go beyond the old ones.

Individual level: the pressure of social competition is high, and the tension in the struggle narrative is prominent.

On one hand, young people today live in a highly competitive society where competition is everywhere. Driven by algorithm-based assessments from smart tech, people put a lot of time, energy, and resources into fierce competition. This leaves some feeling lost, insecure, scared, lonely, and uncertain. Plus, issues like jobs, housing, relationships, education, elder care, and child care are big concerns. The real-life pressures keep growing for some, making them overly anxious. This modern anxiety makes society tense and holds back progress. In recent years, more people want stable government jobs. Surveys show that when some college grads enter society, real struggles make them lose direction. Without good guidance, they can fall through the cracks, and the gap between reality and what they learned can lead to mental health issues.

On the other hand, things like better development, more access to college, the internet, and the struggle narrative have made personal opportunities match up with mainstream ideas. This match-up also hints at a struggle story based on history - today is better than yesterday because of hard work, so keep at it, and tomorrow will be even better. This shapes young people's high hopes for their own growth. As long as they believe in the struggle, they trust the country can thrive, even if jobs are hard to find and life isn't great now. They stay confident and keep going until things get better. The country's comeback story and personal struggle stories can boost each other. As the economy settles, some industries and circles may slow down, impacting some young minds. If the country's rise and personal struggles don't line up, the cycle could turn into a loop of proving each other wrong, making some less proud and less identified with the nation.

Today, when some young folks talk about stuff around them, it often shows their confusion and doubts about how society is developing. Some are sure the country will grow but worry about their own future; they are hopeful for the nation but not for themselves. Looking at recent online trends: "mourning"（丧） in 2016, "Buddha-like"（佛系） in 2018, "involution"（内卷） in 2020, "lying flat"（躺平） in 2021, "don’t give a sh*t anymore"（摆烂， literally “Let it rot“） in 2022, "disillusionment"(幻灭) in 2023... some have a negative outlook. Unlike older generations, the new generation grew up with abundance, and China's rising power gave them confidence and pride that tied them to the country. But if hope for the country and confusion about their own path doesn't match up, it could chip away at some young people's foundation of national identity. Without faith in the struggle story, the mainstream ideas based on national identity could face new tests and hurt long-term confidence in the nation's revival.

2. Potential Risks in the Connotations of Contemporary Youth Values

1. Risks of Postmodern Values

Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, China has achieved tremendous economic and social development. As the standard of living continues to rise, people's demand for spiritual and cultural life is also growing, and social values are beginning to show a trend of diverse and multi-dimensional development. Contemporary youth are no longer satisfied with basic survival needs and are gradually replacing modern values that emphasize survival, security, and material wealth with postmodern values that emphasize freedom, equality, inclusiveness, and self-expression. However, modern values have not truly disappeared. On the one hand, workers with lower education and income levels still adhere to materialism, and the pursuit of material life will remain their life goal for a considerable period of time. With the competition in the labor market, this process may continue for a long time. On the other hand, postmodern values are not unchangeable. When economic income declines and living welfare cannot be guaranteed, individuals are likely to return to modern values, which is also the reason why some young people engage in low-budget travel and entertainment.

Therefore, the values of contemporary Chinese youth present a mix and interweaving of different eras. In particular, postmodern values differ greatly from pre-modern and modern values, shifting from a focus on material to a focus on spiritual aspects, mainly manifested in the pursuit of personalized experiences. Contemporary youth, especially those from families with better economic conditions in big cities, have their basic material needs fully met and, therefore, expect to have more freedom of choice. In a sense, their values often exhibit postmodern characteristics.

In recent years, a group of active young people with high cultural levels, strong participation abilities, and postmodern values have emerged in economically developed regions. They actively promote changes in social issues they care about and call on all sectors of society to "see" the rights demands of individual destinies and special groups. They expect society to be more open and inclusive on some cutting-edge social issues, emphasizing the protection of corresponding civil rights on issues such as gender equality, animal protection, environmental protection, sexual minorities, labor relief, and human dignity. They believe that freedom is an inseparable responsibility and consciousness and that the deprivation of others' rights means the deprivation of one's own rights. They call on everyone to be aware of the need to protect their own rights. They have won a certain degree of emotional support among highly educated and high-income groups with their so-called "unique intellectual consciousness of young people," promoting the setting of social agendas and even policy updates.

It should be recognized that the mainstream ideology in China reflects the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of people, including youth, and represents the forward direction of China's advanced culture. Therefore, postmodern and mainstream values are not rivals. No matter how diverse the manifestations of postmodern values are, they should operate within the framework of mainstream values. Therefore, we should analyze the functional value of postmodern values and their relationship with mainstream values from a perspective of difference rather than a perspective of confrontation. The emergence of postmodern values reduces the importance of material wealth, decreases people's desire for material possessions, and gradually elevates spiritual life as an important means of satisfying needs. From the perspective of social development trends, postmodern values can help humans escape the "material trap," encourage people to pay more attention to the human spiritual world and the natural environment, and have a positive side. The popularization of new media technology has created conditions for the spread of postmodern values, and the environment of multicultural integration has given postmodern values greater room for expansion. The acceptance and recognition of postmodern values among youth groups will gradually increase with the development of the economy and society and the improvement of education levels.

At the same time, it should be noted that although postmodern values are a normal phenomenon that appears at a certain stage of social development, some of their viewpoints attempt to negate "grand narratives," advocate the pluralization of value concepts and value judgments, and one-sidedly emphasize "fragmentation" and "difference," thereby negating core values and leading to the growth of nihilism and skepticism. These arguments must be taken seriously. In recent years, some young people expect society to be more open and inclusive on some hot topics. Of course, these issues do not all have political attributes, and the young people who initiate these social issues do not necessarily hold dissenting views on the country's development path. However, these issues are easily exploited by hostile forces abroad and become an excuse to attack China's human rights issues.

2. Risk of online populism

In contemporary political science research, populism is often defined as a "thin ideology." It is considered "thin" because, unlike "thick ideologies" such as liberalism and conservatism, populism cannot fully answer questions about social order. However, as a "thin ideology," populism can be combined with different "thick ideologies" and manifest in different forms. For example, when the "people" advocated by populism oppose the "elite," and in some scenarios, this opposition transforms into "us" versus "them," it resembles extreme nationalism.

In recent years, anti-globalization, trade protectionism, xenophobia, and populism have converged to become propositions for solving internal economic and social conflicts in some Western countries. Unlike past populism, contemporary populism, on the one hand, has an extreme "left" color of anti-establishment, anti-authority, and anti-elite, with a broad mobilization capacity among the lower and middle classes. On the other hand, it also has an extreme "right" color of xenophobia and extreme nationalism, resonating with conservatism, forming an extremely complex social phenomenon that goes beyond existing theoretical explanatory frameworks. Judging from the youth movements that have occurred in Western countries in recent years, populism has led to varying degrees of social unrest and even political turmoil. With the help of communication channels such as the Internet, foreign populist discourse has also influenced Chinese youth, fueling the spread of populism in China.

From a global perspective, the younger generation is more likely to accept new ideas and concepts in society and has an idealistic understanding of certain social issues. Therefore, their thinking often has the characteristics of reforming the system and criticizing reality, especially in an era of intensified social contradictions and complex interests. Some young people are prone to believing in revolutionary theories that aim to completely revolutionize the existing system or using such theories as their action programs and ideological basis. Judging from the characteristics of populism, its distinct grassroots nature, irrationality, and criticism have a strong impact, agitation, and enveloping effect on the growing youth group.

Compared to traditional populism, online populism with the addition of "online" actually reflects the changes that populist trends have undergone in the new media environment. "The Internet is not a simple mapping and replication of real-world populism but fundamentally reconstructs the mechanism of populism's emergence." Populism spreads, proliferates, and expands in cyberspace, thus having strong technical support and a vast amount of information sources. The discourse expression ecology of populism in cyberspace often exhibits strong criticism, deconstruction, and confrontation characteristics, with more populist, emotional, irrational, and extreme tendencies. Mobile internet has reconstructed the communication channels and mobilization capabilities of populism.

Judging from some online hotspot events in recent years, although online populism has paid attention to the harm of capital, it has, to a certain extent, ignored that "behind material and social phenomena, there are actually hidden social relations and social structures." It has ignored the more complex reasons behind the subject of action, such as social changes and institutional construction. This kind of thinking mode of generalizing from a single point and drawing conclusions based on partial information not only increases the gap and opposition between different groups but also increases the resentment and hostility online and offline. Tolerance, understanding, and trust between people become difficult, social consensus is shaken, and cohesion and solidarity gradually dissipate. In particular, controversies regarding inequality in power, wealth, and prestige go beyond specific public opinion events and spread to specific social groups, which then evolve into conspiracy theories speculating on the primitive accumulation process of advantaged groups. This kind of attribution thinking that unilaterally pursues the principle of egalitarianism simplifies specific, empirical, and complex social issues into abstract, conceptualized, and black-and-white concepts, which may lead to a series of social governance challenges such as the polarization of public opinion and in-group bias.

In terms of its manifestation, online populism is more deeply hidden because it cherry-picks quotes from the writings of Marx and Engels, severely deviating from and distorting our Party's policy propositions in many aspects, damaging Marxism. On some issues, the ideas and viewpoints of online populism have similarities in wording with some expressions of mainstream ideology, making it very difficult for youth groups to discern and understand. Looking to the future, China's rapid development will inevitably bring about the demand of the world's largest-scale employed population for a multi-layered industrial structure, the demand for capital markets and private property rights to develop cutting-edge industries, and the demand of the world's largest supply capacity for a free and open international market. These three factors will all lead to the rise of online populism, which we must be particularly vigilant about.

(Some of my observations: the gap between the rich and poor gives room for rising populism. It cherry-picked words from Marxist works while also containing a conservative agenda. I have talked with some of them; they do not even have a self-sustained ideology. Thus, we cannot simply say it’s progressive or not, but to classify them into general populism)

3. Risk of extreme nationalism

Nationalism and patriotism share similarities in their core values, goals, and psychological foundations. Without a sense of nationality, the concept of a nation-state loses its meaning. Cultivating national spirit and shaping national identity are essential for the development of today's youth. The growing trend of nationalist ideology among young people has its inevitable reasons, stemming from their pride in domestic achievements and their response to external pressures. Thus, the rise of nationalism among youth groups is not without reason. The 2016 "Diba Expedition" incident became a case study for society to observe the trends and political mobilization strategies of the new generation's youth nationalism. The powerful self-organization and mobilization abilities demonstrated by young people in the online public opinion battle during this incident caught the world's attention. They expressed opinions and shared information through collage videos, cartoons, emoticons, and online articles on platforms like Bilibili, Facebook, and Instagram. They reached consensus and mobilized through announcements, chats, comments, reposts, and likes, carrying out a highly organized and ritualized nationalist collective action. This "Diba Expedition" model was repeated, and youth nationalist groups gradually gained public attention, with some scholars calling it "fandom nationalism."

Youth nationalism driven by patriotic enthusiasm is understandable. However, what needs attention is the convergence of nationalism and populism, as well as extreme nationalism that uses populism to guide youth towards a blind sense of national superiority and destructive xenophobic sentiments. Populism and nationalism are essentially two different ideologies, and populism does not inherently have a nationalist tendency. The difference is that nationalism emphasizes global differences, while populism focuses on the distribution of resources, opportunities, and respect within an independent political entity. Their mobilization methods also differ. Populism typically appeals to the "disadvantaged masses" vertically, while nationalism mobilizes the "people within boundaries" horizontally. However, these two vastly different ideologies are now unprecedentedly close and increasingly converging. The external driving force for this convergence comes from the tense relationship between nation-states and economic globalization. Populism establishes an antagonistic relationship between the people and the elite through the vertical "bottom/top" structure, while nationalism distinguishes between national members and non-members through the horizontal "internal/external" structure.

In the mobile internet era, the emotions and expressions of extreme nationalist movements are relatively intense. Online language has created a new foundation for shaping and strengthening national consciousness, providing an important common platform for imagined communities. The proponents of extreme nationalism are not necessarily old, but this doesn't mean they lack rationality or thoughtfulness. On the contrary, they are often well-educated and have a broad perspective. They have a relatively profound understanding of politics and consumer culture.

Unlike general nationalism, extreme nationalism emphasizes protecting national interests and dignity, possesses extreme national and ethnic ideas, has an obvious and blind xenophobic tendency, stresses rigid confrontation as the primary means of resolving complex international relations, views relations between countries through a lens of hostility and confrontation, and interprets any pragmatic and calm attitude as "being soft on foreign countries" in this irrational emotional state. Currently, with the continuous growth of our country's comprehensive national strength and the interplay of domestic and international situations, a fertile ground for the growth of extreme nationalism has formed in society. On one hand, extreme nationalism has caused intense turbulence in cyberspace and generated considerable pressure from public opinion. On the other hand, some people with ulterior motives exploit the patriotic feelings of youth to maliciously provoke national confrontation and ideological struggles, which hinders exchanges and cooperation between China and the world. Moreover, the rise of extreme nationalism can easily arouse nationalist emotions in other countries, leading to increasingly fierce hostility between people of different nations, which is not conducive to creating an international environment for peaceful development.

His proposal for leading the youth value

First, we need to provide high-quality theoretical materials for young people to help them develop the right way of thinking. As the saying goes, "A thorough theory can convince people. Being thorough means grasping the essence of things, and the essence of people is people themselves." We should be brave enough to answer the various theoretical questions raised by young people, conduct thorough research, give clear explanations, and reflect on reality. Only in this way can we convince, move, and guide them. We need to clearly explain Marxism's stance, viewpoints, and methods, vividly demonstrate Marxism's true power, and transform abstract theories into life logic that is close to young people and reality. We should use simple and plain language to explain things thoroughly and in an easy-to-understand way, clarifying the essential differences between the Marxist view of the people and the "people's view" of other ideologies. Let the majority of young people realize from the depths of their minds that, in the eyes of Marxism, the proletariat is a historical subject with a high degree of modern civilizational consciousness and practical initiative. Through analysis and reasoning, we should reveal the idealistic view of history, subjective epistemology, and metaphysical essence of Western social trends.

Second, we must accurately grasp the changes in young people's thoughts and create a youth work team combining "political, organizational, and ideological" qualities. When researching youth phenomena, we should avoid using a single scientific theory to explain complex phenomena and abandon drawing conclusions solely based on data compilation and accumulation. We should not simply believe in quantitative research and recognize that objective analysis cannot completely replace intuitive judgment. We should strongly advocate going to the grassroots level and emerging youth groups, establishing observation points to increase perceptual understanding, and using participatory surveys and "dissecting sparrows" to gain deep insight into the changes in young people's thoughts. At the same time, we should strengthen research and tracking of key platforms for the spread of youth thoughts, such as "Bilibili," "Zhihu," "Douyin," and "Xiaohongshu," which are important "amplifiers" of various ideas and have different influences on communication channels compared to other platforms. We should systematically track new vocabulary, emotions, and changes on these platforms.

We should not treat youth work in a general way, but we should attach importance to its high degree of professionalism and practicality and strengthen the study of the laws of organizational and ideological work among different groups. We should focus on discovering, cultivating, and absorbing talents who are good at grasping and applying the laws of youth growth and let those who are good at uniting and guiding young people become a bridge between the party and the youth. We should allocate talents in key areas in a targeted manner, focusing on both "consolidating the foundation" and "stabilizing the top." For example, industrial workers have weak ideological awareness but strong organizational skills. In uniting and leading this group, we should reflect on the characteristics of the organization first and ideological follow-up and focus on allocating talents with strong organizational skills. For groups such as new media practitioners and freelancers who have strong ideological awareness but weak organizational skills, we should reflect the characteristics of ideology first and organizational follow-up in uniting and leading them that is, "doing ideological work for people with ideas" to better play the value of ideological talents.

Third, we need to focus on the core interests of youth growth and increase efforts to solve key issues affecting youth development. Only by paying attention to the core interests of youth growth and effectively solving the practical problems of youth development can we fundamentally eliminate the soil for youth unrest. In the process of long-term research on youth groups, the research team found that the core factors affecting young people's political attitudes and social perceptions are mainly three key variables: housing (rental) conditions, career development paths, and marriage and family support, which are important foundations for young people to enter society. If these three key factors are well resolved, young people will be full of hope for the future and will be able to self-resolve and adapt when encountering setbacks and difficulties in life. If these factors cannot be fundamentally improved through their own efforts for a long time, young people may doubt the meaning of life and lose their expectations of social fairness and justice. In the future, we should give full play to the leverage and integration effects of the national "Medium and Long-term Youth Development Plan (2016-2025)" and increase the adjustment of key variables in youth development to give the majority of young people a greater sense of gain, happiness, and security.

We can consider introducing the "Youth Development Promotion Law" at an appropriate time to strengthen the legal guarantee for youth development. At present, the field of youth work is still in a blank state of comprehensive basic legal legislation. We should earnestly implement the important requirements of the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China on "comprehensively promoting the rule of law in all aspects of the country's work," fully implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important thoughts on youth work, and integrate the youth development policy practices introduced since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, especially the implementation of the "Medium and Long-term Youth Development Plan (2016-2025)," into law, providing a strong legal guarantee for promoting the all-round development of young people and shaping good youth in the new era.