The Contemporary Chinese Youth Culture Citizens Of The Field Interpretations

With theoretical notions of cultural citizenship as points of departure, this dissertation aims to provide a detailed case analysis of an aid effort undertaken by a group of graduate volunteers in Shanghai. Based on ethnographic data obtained from field research, I attempt to develop an evolutionary model of citizenship which demonstrates the expansion of citizenship within the group and from group level to societal level as well as the correlations of the various dimensions of citizenship. At a microscopic level, this dissertation explores the empirical significance of cultural citizenship for the ongoing inquiry into this particular group of Chinese youthunder study. It seeks to determine the extent to which the development of cultural citizenship at various levels and its compatibility with other dimensions of citizenship. This dissertation argues that in the specific context of social transition and globalizing trend in contemporary China, the emergence of cultural dimension has become an integral part of the citizenship formation of the youth generation and assumes a key role in shaping the citizenship at the level of small groups. Homogenous cultural citizenship enables small groups to maintain stability. As this dissertation suggests, in the practice of everyday life, cultural citizenship is capable of fulfilling the process of transformation for levels of small groups to the social level. Likewise the incompatibility of cultural citizenship with other dimensions of citizenship will give rise to issues of legitimacy and universality. Nevertheless a multi-dimensional perspective on citizenship would help us ascertain the problem. The dissertation concludes with a reiteration of research findings and an extended discussion of the implication of the evolutionary model of citizenship for the development of cosmopolitanism into the future.