Constructing the autonomous middle-class self in today's China: the case of young-adult only-children university students

Abstract

This paper explores the identity construction of a number of young-adult only-children who were winners in the fierce competition for a seat at university. The purpose is to gain an understanding of the choices and decisions these young people viewed as significant and how, in negotiating these choices and striving for their life goals, a particular understanding of the self may emerge. The study shows that striving for the middle-class lifestyle, which they viewed as the norm of the good life, the young people, as winners, do not dare to stand still on the academic road. Moreover, as much as possible, they wished to secure other forms of capital by joining the Party and entering for the Civil Servants’ Examination. In planning their lives and attempting to achieve their life goals, the young people have adopted an individualized approach, displaying a form of the self consistent with the autonomous, self-authoring and individualistic neoliberal subject, with little reference to the socialist–collectivist values with which the Party has been attempting to indoctrinate Chinese citizens. Such a relation to the self is analyzed against the subjectification regimes in today's China and the social–cultural context in which these individuals’ lives are imbedded.