Rebels Against What? Understanding '98Five' and Their Identity Construction in the Chinese Context of World-Class University Movement

本研究将调查一群自认为是“985”的中国高等教育学生--精英"985工程“大学的垃圾或失败者。“985”这个词通常指的是来自欠发达地区的第一代大学生，他们经历了从成功的学习者到失败者的身份转变。他们建立了一个在线讨论组，在那里他们可以分享他们作为“985失败者”的经历，以情感上支持对方。本研究旨在探讨98后的身份建构，以及他们的身份如何影响他们对当代中国社会中“精英统治”和“自我作为人力资本”的主流话语的抵制。数字民族志将用于研究98 fives的在线参与和互动。本研究将超越（a）城乡分割，纳入弱势的城市青年，（B）布迪厄的文化再生产模型，突出党和国家的干预政策如何有助于塑造高等教育的再生产功能。本研究将证明，党和国家一直在努力创造“具有中国特色的高层次人才”的政策话语，其中通过“世界一流”的高等教育产生（STEM）人力资本和爱国的社会主义公民是主要关注点。这种话语一直与儒家精英政治的传统话语一起将人的能动性边缘化，特别是那些来自弱势社会经济背景的人，他们渴望通过参加精英高等教育来实现社会流动。因此，本研究将为教育政策制定者提出一个挑战，即超越工具性话语，发展更多的人文性话语，以扩大青少年的代理自由。

This research will investigate a group of Chinese higher education students who identify themselves as'98five(s)' - trash or losers at elite 'Project 985' universities. The term '98five' generally refers to first generationcollege students from under-developed areas who experienced an identity shift fromsuccessful learners to 'losers'. They established an online discussion group where they can share theirexperiences as '985 losers' to emotionally support each other. This research seeks to explore the identityconstruction of 98fives and how their identities influence their 'choice' of being resistant to the dominantdiscourses of 'meritocracy' and 'self as human capital' in contemporary Chinese society. Digitalethnography will be used to study 98fives' online engagement and interaction. This research will gobeyond (a) the rural-urban division to incorporate the disadvantaged urban young people, and (b)Bourdieu's cultural-reproductive model to highlight how the Party-State's interventionist policies serve toshape the reproductive functions of higher education. This research will demonstrate that the Party-Statehas endeavoured to create the policy discourse of 'high-level talents with Chinese features', in whichgenerating (STEM) human capital and patriotic socialist citizens through 'world-class' higher educationare main concerns. This discourse has been working with the traditional discourse of Confucianmeritocracy to marginalise human agency, particularly those from disadvantaged socio-economicbackgrounds who aspire for social mobility through participation in elite higher education. Therefore, thisresearch will present a challenge for educational policy makers to move beyond instrumental discoursesand develop more humanistic discourses in which young people' agency freedom can be augmented.