Sang culture: Exploring the new Chinese youth movement and the way forward

"Sang culture", a cultural phenomenon pervasive among Chinese youths is characterised by expressions of resignation and pessimism in their social media engagements. Inculcated by an interplay of structured social and educational practices as well as strict government policies, the Sang culture is a deeply ingrained social expression that voices out resistance and non-conformity of the said youths. This study explores the proliferation of the Sang culture, outlines its implications, and navigates the ensuing challenges. Using the foundation of the Social Comparison Theory, the study found that the "downwards comparison" element dominated and were heavily applied by selected informants from the Generation Z cohort through semi-structured interviews that were conducted, but also saw positive "upwards comparison" in terms of togetherness in the social discourse. The influence of family expectations, along with stressful work environments fostered by rigorous academic expectations has also shaped the prevalence of the Sang culture. This study also found fostering open dialogues in families, diversifying academic evaluation systems, promoting work-life balance in corporations, and the efforts in nurturing mental health and active civic participation is fairly absent among youngsters form the Generation Z cohort in China. Further to this, ingrained social norms and rigid traditional structures resist these changes, thus rendering a strategic balance between social harmony and open discourse as necessary. The study underscores the necessity of initiating dialogues on the Sang culture, promoting Sang culture-centric research, and studying the effectiveness of social media in deconstructing the "Sang".