LYDIA FENG: Chinese youth are living in a brave new world.
They're richer, better educated, and more connected than ever before.
But they're also under constant pressure to compete and to conform.
We've collaborated with Chinese filmmakers to bring you
three intimate stories of young people rejecting convention,
testing the limits of their freedom,
and trying to find their place in China's future.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(TRADITIONAL CHINESE MUSIC PLAYS THROUGH SPEAKERS)
University students return to campus after day one of junxun -
the two weeks of compulsory military training that open the academic year.
Among them is a 20-year-old Social Studies major
from faraway Guizhou province, Tutu.
(UPBEAT CLUB MUSIC)
Voguing is a subculture and a dance
that emerged from New York City's queer scene in the 1980s.
Members of different 'families' or 'houses' compete in walk-offs
and dance battles at voguing balls.
House founders are known as mothers and fathers.
But we can also do just a little.
In a week's time, Tutu and his family will compete
in the first major ballroom event of the year -
the Shanghai Baby voguing ball.
31-year-old Zhao Jia had a Cadillac, an apartment in the city,
and a career with China's largest private education company.
She gave it all up to be a farmer.
Jia runs a 200-acre mixed farm
in the hills of eastern Shandong province, with her husband Chen.
(CALLS TO ANIMALS)
She's part of a divergent group of young Chinese,
known as fanxiang qingian, or 'returning youth'.
For decades, rural Chinese couldn't wait to get out,
as they sought work in the booming coastal cities.
But some are now rejecting the costs and pressures of urban life
and returning home.
Unlike their parents, China's new generation of farmers
is armed with technology.
But we're not talking tractors.
(DOG SQUEALS)
The tool of choice for Returning Youth is the smartphone.
Jia livestreams her farming life and advertises her produce
to more than half a million followers on Chinese TikTok.
Smile!
Rural influencers like Jia are a blooming subset
of China's $200 billion livestreaming industry.
In China, social media platforms like TikTok are seamlessly integrated
with e-commerce, so farmers can sell their produce live
to their followers.
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS ON CLIP)
Jia's farm is in a region famous for cherries.
When she and her husband took over the property,
it was suffering after years of intensive monoculture.
(CICADAS DRONE)
Shanghai's summer chorus of cicadas fills the air,
as Tutu packs his things for the ball.
MAN:
(CHINESE NATIONAL ANTHEM PLAYS)
(HEAVY PANTING)
MAN:
At the age of 32, Li Chuang was feeling lost
and suffering from anxiety.
He left his job as an editor with a renowned publishing house
in Beijing
and volunteered with Taoist monks on Wudang Mountain.
Chuang grew up in the hutongs - the narrow alleyways of old Beijing.
Over decades of rampant development, many of these neighbourhoods
were bulldozed, others were sanitised for tourists,
and only a handful of the real hutongs remain.
Working class communities like the one Chuang now calls home.
When he heard his grandparents' old house was sitting vacant,
Chuang moved in and opened a grocery store.
MAN:
Li Chuang's not the only young person upsetting the nation.
A fringe movement known as tangping, or 'Lying Flat',
is ruffling the government's feathers.
It's a form of passive protest that involves dropping out of China's
competitive work culture and rejecting material success.
The Communist Party has labelled tangping a threat to stability.
State media calls it shameful.
Online discussion of the movement is censored.
(CHINESE POP SONG PLAYS ON CAR RADIO)
JIA:
WOMAN:
(LAUGHS)
(TRADITIONAL CHINESE MUSIC PLAYS THROUGH LOUDSPEAKERS)
Li Chuang has taken to visiting the park each morning,
traditionally the domain of retirees.
It helps with his anxiety.
And he's avoiding his mother,
who's been staying with him at the shop.
Chuang's mum is a retired teacher
who worked the same job her entire career.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(STRUMS GUITAR)
(HORN BEEPS)
(STRUMS GUITAR AND SINGS)
TUTU: Hi, I'm back.
(LAUGHTER AND CHATTER)
Voguing families from all over China
have gathered in Shanghai for the ball.
(THUMPING CLUB MUSIC)
(CROWD CHEERS)
(SONG ENDS, CROWD CHEERS)
WOMAN:
(UPBEAT CLUB MUSIC)
(CHEERING)
Captions by Red Bee Media
Copyright Australian Broadcasting Corporation
(CHEERING)