Rural youth and youth culture in north China

This article describes how economic reforms have transformed the local worl d of village life in North China, specifically the emergence of a rural ``y outh culture'' that reflects urban values and styles. This culture has both challenged and enriched rural China's tradition and its more recent commun al structure, a change that reshapes the relations amongst family members o f different age cohorts as well as between peasants and cadres. it is argue d that this transformation in the Chinese countryside holds opportunities t o improve living conditions and unmake the constraints of tradition and the modern nation-state on life chances and everyday experience. The sheer num ber of rural youth in China suggests that the future impact of this transfo rmation on social realities could be enormous.