Angry youth or realistic idealist? The formation of subjectivity in online political participation of young adults in urban China

This article examines the formation of Chinese young people’s political subjectivity through exploring their everyday online political participation. Drawing on qualitative data collected from 31 Chinese young people, it identifies three dispositions apparent in their online participatory activities in different circumstances: ‘angry youth’, ‘powerless cynics’, and ‘realistic idealists’. Reflecting their accounts of these participatory...