This open access book investigates from a life-course perspective the individualization process
and the challenges faced by young adults in post-collectivist China where people are enjoined
to liberate (jiefang) their individual capacities to rely on themselves (kao ziji) and to no
longer depend on the state (kao guojia). Based on unique quantitative and qualitative data
this book provides a solid empirical portrait of Chinese youths and transformation of social
policies in post-collectivist China This book will be a great resource to students academics
as well as social scientists and policy-makers who wish not only to understand how in such a
short period of time young adults and their families have managed to navigate from a
relatively egalitarian society to one of the most unequal but also how the articulation
between socialist and neoliberal ideologies is reconfiguring social and economic relations as
well as women's and men's life-course. The basis of the English translation of this book from
its French original manuscript was done with the help of artificial intelligence. A subsequent
human revision and rewriting of the content was done by the author.
