MERICS Future China Lecture with Prof. Xiang Biao

China’s youth live in an society that is under enormous stress. Economic growth is slowing and the labor market has not recovered yet. The government calls for self-reliance, cultural self-confidence and patriotism. “Lying flat” (opting out of labor market competition) and “runology” (finding ways to emigrate) have become hot terms among young Chinese. Student numbers abroad are picking up again.

How do younger generations experience the current economic and political environment? How do world views, expectations and the sense of self change over generations? And what are the longer-term implications for China’s socio-economic trajectory and how the country relates to the world?

These are some of the crucial questions Professor Xiang Biao, Director of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Social Anthropology in Halle, explores in his MERICS Future China lecture. The conversation was moderated by Bernhard Bartsch, Director External Relations at MERICS, with Katja Drinhausen, Head of Politics & Society at MERICS as discussant.

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