Stories that Make Hawks? Digital News-Based User-Generated Content and Foreign Policy Orientations Among China’s Generation Z

This study examines the relationships between exposure to news-based user-generated content on Bilibili and Chinese Generation Z’s support for hawkish foreign policies. Guided by the Narrative Policy Framework, a survey ( N = 688) shows that self-reported exposure to villain, hero, and mixed narrative strategies is positively associated with hawkish orientations, both directly and indirectly through national pride and national humiliation. These findings suggest that, within the highly performative and affectively embedded dynamics of social media, nonofficial actors may rely on dramatized storytelling and serve as a nonnegligible component of the broader rise of hawkishness within Chinese youth communities.