From “Learn to Return” to “Learn to Leave”: How Urbanization Shapes the Socialization Process of Chinese Rural Youth

The significant development gap between urban and rural China has long driven college students from rural backgrounds to settle in cities, exacerbating the hollowing out of rural communities. While existing literature predominantly attributes this urbanization tendency to experiences during university, I argue that it is shaped much earlier—through the socialization process in rural youth’s formative years, before they leave for higher education. Drawing on 8 months of fieldwork and 26 in-depth interviews conducted in a rural middle school in J city, Shandong Province, China, this study explores the socialization processes shaped by urbanization among rural youth. I find that shifts in family structure have led local youth to be socialized under the influence of successive generations of elders with evolving attitudes toward urban and rural life. These shifting influences have altered the trajectory of their socialization, shaping their perceptions of rural life and aspirations for urban settlement. This study not only highlights the mechanisms through which the urban-rural gap is reproduced but also offers a novel perspective on how structural inequalities manifest in the lived experiences and future orientations of rural youth.