KU Center for East Asian Studies Annual Report 2020

A century after the May Fourth Movement (1919) that has been invoked repeatedly as the
first youth-led mass movement in Chinese history, what are today’s Chinese youths up to?
This book seeks to answer that compelling question. Identifying three central themes—
youth economy, crisis, and reinvention—this book investigates the explosive youth culture
in twenty-first century China, which is not merely a result of the national and global turn to
a post-Fordist neoliberal creative economy but also an active and powerful force catalyzing
cultural innovations, social changes, and collective efforts in reinventing a pluralistic
and multivalent subject of youth as an icon of alternative futurity and hope in an age of
vertiginous change, division, risk and uncertainty.
Providing a comprehensive analysis of literary, cinematic, musical, televisual, and social
media representations about, for, and by disparate youth groups, this book seeks to offer
a systematic study of a trans-medial and multi-locale youth culture. In so doing, it examines
contributions from high school dropouts, industrial workers, migrant laborers and
"leftover women" as well as best-selling writers and filmmakers, cultural entrepreneurs,
queer idols and fans, and young feminist activists. Observing the Chinese youths’ deployment
of "small" genres, such as light novels, short videos, and shojo manga (girls’ comics)
and “small” (digital and social) media, this book ultimately demonstrates the renewal of
cultural forms and the transformative power of networked "small" atomized individuals in
reinventing a youthful coalition of silenced, belittled, and marginalized groups.
Top: Youth Culture Mixing Up Traditional Instruments and Virtual Reality, screenshot of Our Shining Days.
Bottom: Young Feminist Activists (YFA) Cosplaying Sailor Moon to Protest against Sexist Discriminations, courtesy of Lü Pin.