‘Extinction of Young Adults’ and Change in Structure of Feelings in Contemporary China

Ko Yoonsil

doi:10.18212/cccs.2016..34.001

Young adults in the 21st century have come to suffer from fierce competition for survival and anxiety about their future. They no longer form a central point through sense of community and common good, and they have become fragmented as ‘separately-existing us’ or ‘individuals extinguishing alone.’ This appears more apparently in cultural phenomena and subcultures of resistance and defiance are consumed as individuality and youth is commercialized. Young adults who grew mature though internal reflection and contemplation were named based on various cultural traits and distinction of generation, and they have become the principal agents of consumption. Polarization of cities and rural areas in China has become even more serious and survival has emerged as dire problem for young adults in competition structure represented by ‘survival of the fittest’ and ‘winner takes it all.’Selfishness for survival prevented genuineness from growing up through inner self, and young adults who lost this genuineness have come to be born again as snobbish subjects, which takes place not only in China but also around the whole world including Korea. Especially, appearance of snobbish society and rebirth of snobbish subjects are deemed to be related with change in economic structure and corresponding transposition of power. Radical change in the dominant structure of feelings in China is linked with the change in the form of power which is closely related with economic conditions. This structure of feelings in Chinese society faced a turning point of rapid change at them time of Den Xioping’s ‘Addresses in the Southern Provinces (南方講和).’ At the beginning of this historical point of inflection lay 6/4 Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989. Since then, Chinese system has been on the continuum of Deng Xioping’s system called ‘6/4 system’, which has strengthened consumption capitalism, produced emergence of various cultural tribes of young adult generation and created a new structure of cultural industry-new media-mass culture, spreading the materialism of desires. Now, snobbish emotions have taken firm root widely in overall contemporary Chinese society. From white collar workers to farmers in rural areas as well as young adults are willing to spend their whole life to accumulate wealth and earn social status, and shameless pursuit of these values means formation of structure of feelings which puts these values before anything else and does not feel ashamed of it. This has changed everything from individual way of thinking to interpersonal relationship and way of daily lives. This study explores the changes in Chinese young adults’ culture and structure of feelings through analysis of popular discourse on ‘extinction of young adults’, popularization of cuteness (萌) culture, phenomenon of retrospection of youth and various sub-culture phenomena of young adults.

Citation status

KCI Citation Counts (7)
열림/닫힘 버튼
REFERENCES (18)
열림/닫힘 버튼
* 2021년 이후 발행 논문의 참고문헌은 현재 구축 중입니다.

[journal] 강내희 / 2011 / 근대 세계체제에 대한 68혁명의 도전과 그 현재적 의미 / 문화과학 / 문화과학사

[journal] 고윤실 / 2015 / Post-80 generation's reflection of youth and China Dream as a public discourse / 중국현대문학 / 한국중국현대문학학회 (72) : 137~163

[journal] 김홍중 / 2007 / 삶의 동물/속물화와 참을 수 없는 존재의 귀여움 — 87년 에토스 체제의 붕괴와 그 이후 / 사회비평 36

[journal] 김홍중 / 2009 / 진정성의 기원과 구조 / 한국사회학 / 한국사회학회 43(5) : 1~29

[journal] 민정기 / 2009 / Reading Liang Qichao’s “Discourse on Young China”: An Examination of the Chinese Context of the Call to ‘Youth’ / 중국현대문학 / 한국중국현대문학학회 (50) : 1~24

[journal] 박형신 / 2014 / Emotional Capitalism and Love: Eva Illouz’s Sociology of Emotion on The Search for a Mate / 사회사상과 문화 / 동양사회사상학회 (30) : 39~82

[book] 백욱인 / 2013 / 속물과 잉여 / 지식공작소

[book] 원톄쥔 / 2016 / 현대 중국의 경험과 도전, 1949~2009 : 여덟 번의 위기 / 돌베게

[book] 조르조 아감벤 / 2008 / 호모사케르 / 새물결

[book] 지그문트 바우만 / 2008 / 쓰레기가 되는 삶들 / 새물결출판사

[book] 지그문트 바우만 / 2013 / 방황하는 개인들의 사회 / 봄아필

[book] 첸리췬 / 2012 / 모택동 시대와 포스트 모택동 시대 1949~2009 : 다르게 쓴 역사. 상, 하 / 한울

[journal] 葛红兵 / 1997 / 九十年代青年本位文化三人谈 / 青年探讨 04

[thesis] 胡靜 / 2015 / 網絡文化傳播視域下的萌文化硏究 / 碩士 / 北京郵電大學

[book] 呂途 / 2015 / 中國新工人: 文化與命運 / 法律出版社

[journal] 王建光 / 2009 / 義憤: 從一種群體心態到話語力量的轉變 -- 對當代中國憤靑的一種文化解讀 / 當代靑年硏究 (01)

[journal] 趙雅妮 / 2012 / 靑年文化的變奏: 從靑年的反叛到靑年審美的文化消費 / 北京靑年政治學院學報 (01)

[web] / http://news.sina.com.cn/pl/2009-05-04/083517739436.shtml / http://news.sina.com.cn/pl/2009-05-04/083517739436.shtml

KJC Korea
Journal Central

Statistics

Tools

Sharing

Issue List

Citation status