A volunteer discusses calligraphy work with children at a summer camp. Photo: GUANGMING

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A research group led by professor Lian Si from University of International Business and Economics surveyed youth social organizations in China across 32 provinces in terms of operation, management, capital resources and social impacts. The research group handed out 5,000 questionnaires, held 26 forums and interviewed 224 organization leaders in a bid to track the trajectory of youth social organizations and the pursuits of their staff.

The first characteristic observed about youth organizations is that they have become more organized. In terms of scale, most organizations are led by three or fewer people and have formed stable systems and followers. At the same time, nearly 70 percent of the organizations provide public charity services. The organizations based on common interests, shared profession and cultural activities account for 11.8 percent, 5.5 percent and 4 percent respectively.

Youth social organizations have taken on such characteristics as boundlessness, randomness and mobility. They overcome geographic boundaries as the integration of online and offline activities has become the norm. In many cases, the organizations use fragmented time to mobilize their members on the internet while launching offline events at regular intervals.

Many new youth communities with new features have emerged. A number of celebrities, artists, online streamers, freelance writers and game players have put online-to-offline platforms into good use to expand their work and personal impact. In the process, these new youth communities have turned into a new form of youth social organization.

Though at their early stage, youth social organizations’ staff remarkably differs from their counterparts in economic organizations or political organizations.

The staff of these organizations promote achieving their personal goals and values. With the development of the economy, young people have changed their mentality in terms of job searching. They choose personal values over traditional sectors, so social organizations serve as one of their major destinations. Of the people surveyed, 37.3 percent of them joined social organizations for realizing personal values and 30.1 percent made the same choice out of interest. Those who believed such experiences would benefit their future career accounted for 11.3 percent. In addition, 10.2 percent of the employees wished to contribute to society.

The economic income of this group is relatively low. Their value-oriented motivation pushes the members to lower their requirements for other metrics and encourages them to bear the economic pressure caused by the employment. The survey found that three out of five organizers earn less than 50,000 yuan on a yearly basis. The annual salary of about 30 percent of the people surveyed ranges between 30,000 and 50,000 yuan. People whose annual income exceeds 200,000 yuan account for 2.8 percent.

The survey also found that, in these organizations, the part-time staff outnumbers the full-time staff. In terms of educational backgrounds, 57.7 percent of the people surveyed hold a bachelor’s degree and 8.4 percent a master’s degree or a doctorate. Youth who graduated from junior colleges and high schools make up 24.3 percent and 7.4 percent, respectively. Many of them majored in similar disciplines, such as social affairs or public management.

A majority of youth social organizations maintain a status of “invisibility.” At present, civil affairs departments and other related organs are in charge of social organizations, making it difficult for youth social organizations to register. Therefore, many of them remain unregistered. The number of unregistered youth social organizations is about ten times the number of registered ones, according to the provincial statistics. For example, in Shanghai, there are 5,000 registered youth social organizations, but there are also about 45,000 remain unregistered. Such a situation means that many of these organizations’ moves can’t be tracked and their demands can’t be responded to.

The internet has become the major platform of these organizations’ activities. Of online communication, 31.4 percent takes place on WeChat, a Chinese instant messaging app. People use QQ, a social networking app, to conduct 16.7 percent of online dialogue, followed by telephones and messages with 16.7 and 11.2 percent respectively. The internet has been applied to the enrollment and management of staff, activity organizing, information release, and feedback collection, which has made regulation difficult.

In regard to satisfaction, on a scale of 1 to 5, economic income and social welfare received the lowest scores at 3.15 and 3.3 points, while the overall performance score was 3.65 points, indicating that youth organization members maintain positive attitudes despite unsatisfactory income.

 

This article was translated from Guangming Daily.

(edited by MA YUHONG)