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

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 generation
college students from under-developed areas who experienced an identity shift from
successful learners to 'losers'. They established an online discussion group where they can share their
experiences as '985 losers' to emotionally support each other. This research seeks to explore the identity
construction of 98fives and how their identities influence their 'choice' of being resistant to the dominant
discourses of 'meritocracy' and 'self as human capital' in contemporary Chinese society. Digital
ethnography will be used to study 98fives' online engagement and interaction. This research will go
beyond (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 to
shape the reproductive functions of higher education. This research will demonstrate that the Party-State
has endeavoured to create the policy discourse of 'high-level talents with Chinese features', in which
generating (STEM) human capital and patriotic socialist citizens through 'world-class' higher education
are main concerns. This discourse has been working with the traditional discourse of Confucian
meritocracy to marginalise human agency, particularly those from disadvantaged socio-economic
backgrounds who aspire for social mobility through participation in elite higher education. Therefore, this
research will present a challenge for educational policy makers to move beyond instrumental discourses
and develop more humanistic discourses in which young people' agency freedom can be augmented.