Student movements have been a recurring phenomenon in China since the beginning of the 20th century. In order to develop a better understanding of China's student movements, a new analytical framework will be introduced. This framework encompasses three theoretical perspectives that help to shed light on student activism in China from different angles. The first theory by Vilfredo Pareto, called the "Circulation of the Elites", will be used to discover the leading elite factions within China's student movements. The second theory by Karl Mannheim will provide insight on why some generations produce active student movements and others do not. The third theoretic contribution comes from Pierre Bourdieu's concept of "capital" and "habitus". These elements allow retracing student movements from their individual participants' perspective. After China's student movements have been studied through these theoretical lenses, a combined evaluation of issues related to the effectiveness of student movements will be conducted. The insight generated throughout the analysis will help to understand what major ingredients are required for the formation of successful student movements. For instance, dissenting role models, unrestricted communication and existing legitimacy crises will be identified to increase the likelihood of the formation of active student movements.

This is a history of student protests in Shanghai from the turn of the century to 1949, showing how these students experienced and help shape the course of the Chinese Revolution.

In this book the authors offer their unique perspectives on the important roles Chinese students and intellectuals played in the shaping of the twentieth-century China. Their answers to these pivotal questions explore new nationalistic spirit, modern world-views, and willingness of self-sacrifice, which had attributed to the spontaneous actions of the students as a “New Culture” emerged during the May Fourth Movement. These articles show how China nurtured these spontaneous student movements, even though the Nationalist Party in the Republic of China and the Communist Party in the People’s Republic had exerted tight control over schools. Both governments established organizations as well as operations among students that effectively turned some of the student movements into a political instrument by the parties for their own agenda.

The book looks through five generations of Chinese students since the May Fourth Movement in 1919, explains how their ideas, actions, and impact ran like a thread through many governments and institutions that have shaped modern China, and indicates where China came from and what the country became.

Monograph analysing the social and political problems involved in youth unrest and related social movements of students in various countries - gives historical background and covers sociological aspects, psychological aspects, political aspects, social structures, the role of political parties, political systems (incl. Socialist, capitalist, communist, etc.), etc., and includes case studies. References.

What are the continuities and changes of student activism throughout twentieth-century China? How did students carry out contentious politics during political campaigns of the Maoist era? Scholarships on Chinese student activism have concentrated on two major events: the 1919 May Fourth Movement and the 1989 Tiananmen Protests. Others have also paid attention to student protests in the Republican era, as well as the Red Guards in the Cultural Revolution. However, studies of student activism in the 1950s have been missing, a decade which was presumably dominated by Communist political campaigns, thus leaving little space for social dissent. There has been no short of research on elite politics regarding the Hundred Flowers and the Anti-Rightist Campaigns of 1956--57, though a bottom-up approach to the topic would reveal a different picture of the events.My dissertation fills the gap by investigating the spectrum of college student participation in the political campaigns of 1957, including activists, loyalists and those who stayed silent, from Peking University, Wuhan University and Yunnan University. My sources come from declassified archival documents, digital database, documentary films, student journals, official newspapers, memoirs and oral history interviews I conducted in 2014--15 with 65 college students from the late 1950s. I use social movement theories to treat this episode of student activism as contentious politics, and look at student repertoire, organization and mobilization, framing technique, and political opportunity and constraint.Overall, my dissertation argues that Chinese students in 1957 carried out and passed on similar repertoire and framing technique in comparison to other episodes of student activism, but what made it distinctive was the ambiguous political opportunity and divisions among students that consumed the brief yet intense activism. My dissertation contributes to the ongoing scholarly challenge of the 1949 divide by connecting student activism in the Republic era and the Communist reign, and sheds light on grassroots contentious politics in the Maoist era. As 2017 commemorates the sixtieth anniversary of the Hundred Flowers and the Anti-Rightist Campaigns, student activism of 1957 deserves a bright spot because it has been forgotten for too long.

How privileged adolescents in China acquire status and why this helps them succeed Study Gods offers a rare look at the ways privileged youth in China prepare themselves to join the ranks of the global elite. Yi-Lin Chiang shows how these competitive Chinese high schoolers first become “study gods” (xueshen), a term describing academically high-performing students. Constant studying, however, is not what explains their success, for these young people appear god-like in their effortless abilities to excel. Instead, Chiang explores how elite adolescents achieve by absorbing and implementing the rules surrounding status. Drawing from eight years of fieldwork and extensive interviews, Chiang reveals the important lessons that Chinese youth learn in their pursuit of elite status. They understand the hierarchy of the status system, recognizing and acquiring the characteristics that are prized, while avoiding those that are not. They maintain status by expecting differential treatment and performing status-based behaviors, which guide their daily interactions with peers, teachers, and parents. Lastly, with the help of resourceful parents, they rely on external assistance in the face of potential obstacles and failures. Chiang looks at how students hone these skills, applying them as they head to colleges and careers around the world, and in their relationships with colleagues and supervisors. Highlighting another facet of China’s rising power, Study Gods announces the arrival of a new generation to the realm of global competition.