Anthropologist Biao Xiang has become an unlikely idol for young Chinese people anxious about jobs, relationships and relentless competition. He connects their personal stress to wider social changes and says describing these problems is a way to analyse and manage them.
At a recent Singapore event, about 500 people—mostly Chinese diaspora—attended his Mandarin talk, and dozens queued afterward to meet him. Xiang says competitive exams and the pursuit of secure jobs make external approval a measure of self-worth. He calls working relentlessly just to survive “floating” and argues that neglecting the immediate world around us leaves people disconnected.
Xiang says the property market and higher education have amplified this anxiety: home values became tied to families’ security and success, while rapid university expansion intensified competition. Youth unemployment hit 21.3% before the government stopped publishing the data in mid-2023; censorship also makes the extent of the current mood difficult to gauge. Xiang says the old equation that hard work brings a secure job no longer holds.
