Urban Youth Culture Under the One-Child Policy in China: A Multiperspectival Cultural Studies of Internet Subcultures

Abstract

In my inquiry, I explore Chinese urban youth culture under the one-child policy through analyses of two Chinese Internet subcultural artifacts—A Bloody Case of a Steamed Bun and Du Fu Is Busy. Using Douglas Kellner’s multiperspectival cultural studies (i.e., cultural studies, critical theory, and critical media literacy) as the theoretical framework, and diagnostic critique and semiotics as the analytical method, I examine three general themes—resistance, power relations, and consumerism. The power of multiperspectival cultural studies, an interdisciplinary inquiry, lies in its potentials to explore Chinese urban youth culture under the one-child policy from multiple perspectives; explore historical backgrounds and complexity of cultural artifacts to understand contradictions and trajectories of Chinese urban youth culture; recognize alternative medias as a space for urban Chinese youth to express frustrations and dissatisfactions, to challenge social injustices, and to create dreams and hopes for their futures; recognize that the intertexuality among cultural artifacts and subcultures creates possibilities for Chinese urban youth to invent more alternative media cultures that empower them to challenge dominations, perform their identities, and release their imagination for the future; invite Chinese youth to be the change agents for the era but not to be imprisoned by the era; and overcome misunderstanding, misrepresentation, or underrepresentation of Chinese urban youth cultural texts to promote linguistic and cultural diversity in a multicultural, multilingual, and multiracial world.