“鱼龙混杂 yúlóng-hùnzá” - fish and dragons (bad and good people) mixing together: young people, urban life and alcohol, drinking, drunkenness in China

Abstract

ABSTRACT Against a backdrop where since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, there has been little political, policy, policing or popular resonances of alcohol, drinking, drunkenness as being problematic, this paper explores ambivalence toward strangers, avoidance of social mixing and sensitivity to integrational socio-spatial relations as key to understanding the lives of young people. Presenting ethnographic research from diverse public spaces and commercial venues we interrogate Chinese scholars’ discussion of 公gong /私si (public/private) relations with reference to international literature on encounter and friendship. Discussing differences, similarities, connectivities and mobilities between our study and depictions of “moral panic”, “risky behaviour”, violence and disorder and/or conviviality, sociability and celebratory “rites of passage” to adulthood in cities across the global North/South, we signpost fruitful and innovative new directions for relational comparison of alcohol, drinking, drunkenness no matter where research is undertaken.