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Research on transnational Chinese youth mobility has largely overlooked the experiences of working holiday makers (WHMs), particularly those from non-elite backgrounds. Drawing on Beck’s theory of triple individualization—disenchantment, disembedding, and reembedding—along with a discussion of the paradox of China’s path to individualization, this study examines how Chinese youth become disillusioned with normative life trajectories and turn to transnational migration as a strategy for remaking their individual biographies. Based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork and life-story interviews with 30 Chinese WHMs in Australia conducted between May and August 2023, the findings reveal that disenchantment emerges from tensions surrounding common sense in China, particularly in three key areas: collectivism and uniformity, workplace interpersonal relations, and gender norms. In contrast, the working holiday visa offers Chinese youth a temporary space in Australia to redefine identity and pursue autonomy. Their decisions to disembed from China and reembed abroad are shaped by marginalized pre-migration status associated with Hukou, education, gender and sexual orientation. This study deepens our understanding of how non-elite Chinese youth respond to institutional failure in their home country and contributes to broader discussions on transnational youth mobility, individualization in post-Xi Jinping China, and the intersection of migration, precarity, and identity reformation.
Qing Tingting Liu (Tue,) studied this question.