Online Citizenship Learning of Chinese Young People

Abstract

This chapter examines Chinese young people’s citizenship learning through their participatory activities on the Internet. The discussions presented in this chapter are informed by recent developments in citizenship studies which maintain that citizenship learning is a lifelong process of participation in different formal and informal communities and practices (Biesta et al. 2009) and in the meaning-making activities reflected in various forms of social participation (Hoskins et al. 2012). Two intertwined forms of citizenship learning were identified from Chinese young people’s online activities. The first is young people’s learning about online citizenships through engaging with different virtual communities. Their learning of online citizenships is illustrated by their understanding of the norms and communal practices shaped by the shared language, values, attitudes, and joint enterprises for mutual engagement in these virtual communities. The second is their internet-mediated learning about Chinese society. The Chinese internet, in this case, offers a new way of engaging with and learning about Chinese society. The outcome of these two forms of learning constitutes the landscape of practice upon which their notion of Chinese citizenship is drawn. This chapter draws attention to the digital and constitutive nature of young people’s social engagement in defining new forms of citizenship which are meaningful and relevant to their everyday lives (Lister, 2007; Wood, 2014).