Mengyang Zhao

My dissertation analyzes the emergence of new forms of youth civic engagement in China, which coincides with the repression of grassroots NGOs since 2014. Combining in-depth fieldwork with survey and content analysis, delineate the complex picture of these new types of activism and analyze the factors that have contributed to this profound development. My dissertation pays particular attention to the impact of the post-2008 socio-political conditions, state repression of civil society, and different types of transnational engagement among young activists. This study will break new ground in the scholarship on Chinese student radicalism and the developments of NGOs and civil society. It will also make new contributions to theories of transnational activism and political repression.