Depicting the narratives of escape, drift, compromise, and return: New Chinese youth paradigms in narratives of social mobility

Abstract

ABSTRACT Including the next generation of migrant workers, the young generation with the new mobility can be appropriately considered as an urban-based floating population because they are not rooted in rural areas, unlike the previous generation. Those of the previous generation had a unilateral mobility trajectory from rural to urban areas, whereas the new generation’s life is based on particular regions and combines mobility trends in a more diverse direction with their own life themes. For explaining the social mobility, we applied descriptive-narrative methodology composing of narrative case study and semi-structured interviews. In this paper, the authors examine the endless variability and temporality that Chinese youths acquire from their migration experiences as well as their empirical emotions of uncertainty, particularly the internal narratives that support them amid such variability. Our conclusion suggests that the diversity of the narratives that supports mobility practices and the possibility of realizing personalized narratives are directly linked to the sustainability of Chinese society. Therefore, future Chinese urban population policies may appropriately be made by considering the narratives.