China's Youth Cultures and Collective Spaces: Creativity, Sociality, Identity and Resistance

"Presenting the collaborative work of thirteen international specialists of contemporary Chinese culture and society, this book explores the spaces of creation, production and diffusion of 'youth cultures' in China among generations born since the 1980s. Defining the concept of 'youth culture' as practices and activities that catalyze self-expression and creativity, this book investigates the emergence of new physical spaces, including large avenues, parks, shopping malls and recreation areas. Building on this, it also examines the influence of non-physical places, especially digital cultures, such as online social networks, shopping platforms, cosplay, cyberliterature and digital calligraphy and argues that these may in fact play a more significant role in Chinese civil society today. As an exploration of how youth can be creative even in a coercive environment, China's Youth Cultures and Collective Spaces will be valuable to students and scholars of Chinese society, as well those working on the links between space, youth and culture"--