‘Dual Ambivalence of Counterpublics’: Exploring <i>Small-town Swots</i> in Contemporary China

This article applies the theory of counterpublic to examine how members of the Chinese online community ‘Project 985 Losers Introduction Plan’ (the gathering of losers from Chinese elite universities) who identify themselves as ‘small-town swots’ negotiate their ambivalent counterpublic through collective narratives and shared sentiments. The term ‘small-town swots’ is a self-deprecating, ironic internet buzzword that describes students from Chinese rural or county-level cities who come to study in Chinese elite universities through examination success but are disappointed to learn that they lack social connections, wealthy families, or quality-oriented education of their well-connected city-born peers, and thus often encounter obstacles in further education or job hunting. Following the principles of reflexive thematic analysis and abductive analysis, this study analyzed 121 top posts and their comments (N = 1179) in ‘985 Losers’. The findings reveal that ‘985 Losers’ offers a discursive arena where members share their collective narratives, mostly bitter and disappointing. These narratives challenge Chinese dominant values, such as the idea that education can change the destiny of disadvantaged students, and criticize increasing education inequality, class immobility, and the wealth gap, which constitute counterpublic discourses, to some extent. However, these counterpublic discourses are actually weak and compromised, with the aim of gaining a sense of belonging, internal solidarity, emotional support, and possible solutions to reassert members’ legitimacy as mainstream elites. This study further proposes the notion of the dual ambivalence of counterpublics. This notion puts the focus, on the one hand, on the negotiation of political critique, emotional vent, instrumental support, and compromised resistance in counter discourses, and on the other hand, on members’ oscillation between the marginalized grassroots and the mainstream elites.