From the Last Row of the Classroom to the Top Page of Kuaishou: an ethnographic study of Chinese rural students’ struggle for recognition across school and social media

Abstract

In contemporary China, dominant school discourses have marginalised students frequently labelled as “low achievers”, “disengaged” or “disruptive”, particularly in rural contexts. While a few studies have documented non-conforming behaviours among these students, there remains limited understanding of their lived schooling experiences and how they construct meaning and identity within and beyond the school environment. Meanwhile, the growing accessibility of mobile technologies in rural China has opened new spaces for youth identity formation and cultural participation beyond traditional educational boundaries. This study investigates how rural students’ lived experiences at school intersect with their digital engagement to shape new forms of self-expression and belonging.

The research is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a rural boarding middle school in Southwest China, combining in-school observations and interviews with 22 students, alongside online ethnography of their activities on Kuaishou, a short-video platform widely used by rural youth. Drawing on Axel Honneth’s theory of recognition, the study adopts an interpersonal lens to examine how marginalised students experience relational dynamics at school and create alternative structures of recognition among peers.

The findings first analyse the dominant recognition structures within the school, showing how various forms of felt disrespect students experienced in interacting with teachers - lack of care, unequal treatment and devaluation - undermine students’ sense of worth and self-understanding. In response to such disrespectful experiences, students formed oppositional communities as alternative spaces of recognition. At school, they developed what is locally known as luan (“disorder”) culture - a collective identity rooted in non-conformity and peer solidarity. Online, this oppositional identity was extended through the creation of post-jingshen (“post-spirit”) culture on Kuaishou, characterised by distinct visual and textual styles that subvert conventional youth norms. These digital presentations mirrored their offline practices, offering new modes of visibility, peer recognition and identity affirmation beyond institutional authority.

Importantly, the construction of such alternative recognition structures remains continuously negotiated within and shaped by institutional power structures and the socio-technological affordances of digital platforms. By exploring the interplay between schooling and youth cultural production across physical and digital spaces, this study offers an in-depth understanding of rural youth identity and agency in China, and new insights into educational marginalisation, school culture and digital youth culture in a non-Western context.