Symbolizing anxiety: Kong Yiji, digital memory, and Chinese youth

Abstract Symbols are central to the ways in which youth articulate emotions in digital environments. This study examines the Kong Yiji literature movement, a Chinese online phenomenon, conceptualizing youth-anxiety memory as a form of counter-public memory embodied mainly by symbolic forms. Extending the framework of recontextualized rhetorical economy and adopting a mixed-methods approach that integrates online ethnography with a symbol-focused discourse analysis, this study traces the uptake, circulation, and effects of the movement to reveal how symbols both embody and complicate youth-anxiety memory. Specifically, this study foregrounds the socio-historical context, places (social media), symbols, and various rhetorical agents in shaping the uptake, circulation, and effects of the movement. Moreover, this study identifies key structural characteristics of youth-anxiety memory in the digital context. Implications arising from the movement are also provided.