China’s university students escape online to rail against the nation’s growing inequality
- China is on track to officially alleviate poverty by year’s end, but there is growing frustration over inequality and limited social mobility among young people
- Scores of young Chinese, many of whom are new graduates, are joining online groups to voice their frustration with the nation’s widening wealth gap
In May, a group of young Chinese, many of whom were fresh university graduates, started a club on Chinese social media platform Douban called “Five”, which sounds similar to “Feiwu,” or loser in Mandarin.
Within five months, the community had more than 100,000 members. Many had a lot in common: they grew up in rural villages or small towns and studied hard to get into the country’s top 100 universities. But they found it a struggle to get a good job or integrate into society after graduation.
Up for discussion were threads like, “How many of you have decided not to get married and have children?” or “How do you all resist loneliness?” A good deal of members shared their personal failures and complained about the nation‘s widening wealth gap.
While there is little coverage in mainstream media, Chinese youth are flocking online to express their fury and disappointment at inequality in the world’s second largest economy.
The income and consumption gap between high-income and low-middle-income residents is widening sharply
Li Shi, a professor who studies income distribution at Zhejiang University, defines relative poverty as roughly 40 per cent of median income, or an annual income of 5,000 (US$738) yuan for rural residents and 12,000 yuan for urban residents.
While China‘s official absolute poverty line is an annual salary of 2,300 yuan, Li’s research showed more than 130 million Chinese are living in relative poverty.