Tengteng Zhuang
This study examines how Chinese postgraduate students’ life outlooks are separately and collectively shaped by the interplaying neoliberalism, Confucianism and patriotism. The findings reveal that neoliberalism contributes to Chinese postgraduates’ enterprising self by shaping their subjectivity in pursuing personal goals, infiltrating them with the market logic of efficiency, effectiveness and quantifiable outcomes, and according them a de-regulation predisposition. Confucianism prompts postgraduates for self-strengthening at individual level and guides them with interaction norms at interpersonal level. Patriotism underpins their psychological and emotional power based on strengthened memories of historical events and pride in national achievements, hence generating the most deep-seated collective identity. Counteracting and consolidating forces are identified from the three isms’ interplay, resulting in Chinese postgraduates’ partial individualization. Such partial individualization reflected from today’s Chinese postgraduates, however, takes on new meanings from that on previous generations, featured with a more consistent rather than divisible dual-self.
