The Study Of Educated Youth Media

From the 1950s to 1970s, the Rural-Going Movement had overwhelmed China. The movement started with the government's attempt to persuade middle school and primary school students to go back to their hometown and engage in rural labor work. Later with the appearance of serious economic and social problems in China during the Cultural Revolution, it evolved into a nation-wide political revolution. This movement once aroused the affection and dream of young people, and it did solve some social problems then. But it also brought young people with pain or even disaster and made the society more stormy and turbulent.The Educated Youth Media was born in this situation. At first, the government edited and published various kinds of publications promoting the national policy. Young people were encouraged to go and work in the countryside and mountainous areas to re-educate themselves. These publications were quite influential among young people at that time. Besides, the educated youth also edited and published some publications themselves in their work, most of which were literary and artistic works. The Rural-Going Movement served as the precondition and stimulus for the appearance of Educated Youth publications. Nowadays, the emerging of Educated Youth websites diversifies the content and forms of Educated Youth Media.The 60-year development of Educated Youth Media since its birth in the 1950s has exerted great influence on the social evolution of China. It reflects the change of formula in urban and rural cultural exchange. The birth-to-climax and the reviving stages mirror clearly the cultural exchange between the urban and rural area in China. The change of times and the transition of society forged the essential change in the form of communication between two sides.Educated Youth Media hasn't been proposed in the academic field as a concept so far. This paper shall offer some initiative efforts in defining this notion and exploring the scenario of its development in the Chinese history. The evolution of Educated Youth Media is divided into three stages according to historical development. This paper is going to discuss and analyze the three stages, and try to detect the urban and rural cultural exchange that occurred in this process.The first stage is the period of appearance to climax of Educated Youth Media. This stage is set in the Cultural Revolution. A number of educated youth from the urban area went to the countryside as required by the national call, which served as the precondition for the birth of Educated Youth Media. This stage is one of the research focuses of this thesis, since a unique inner characteristic, featuring political intimidation and powerful political intervention, dominated the urban and rural cultural exchange at this time. This research is going to detect the characteristics of urban and rural cultural exchange from the development of Educated Youth Media.The second stage is the stagnation period of Educated Youth Media. In 1980s, the Cultural Revolution came to its end and the Chinese people started to retrospect about the past 10 years. We will explore the causes for the stagnation of the Educated Youth Media and its status during this period.The third stage is the revival of Educated Youth Media. The Educated Youth Media, having been through the generation period, the climax period and the stagnation period, finally revived in 1990s. Various kinds of magazines, journals and publications related to the Educated Youth sprang up. So far, with the establishment of a number of Educated Youth websites, the content and form of the Educated Youth Media are greatly diversified. The urban and rural cultural exchange at this time has stepped out of the ideology-stereotyped period. The means of exchange has transformed from political intimidation into a spontaneous and free way, which will be fully explored in this paper.