China's Youth Cultures and Collective Spaces

Presenting the collaborative work of 13 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.

Vanessa Frangville is Senior Lecturer and Chair holder in Chinese studies at the Université libre de Bruxelles and the Director of EASt, ULB's Research Centre on East Asia.
Gwennaël Gaffric is currently Associate Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at the Université de Lyon, France. He is also translator of Chinese, Hongkongese, and Taiwanese contemporary novels.