zhiqing

— The most important definitional confusion is between urban and rural educated youth. The term for “educated” or “intellectual” youths, chih-shih ch’ing-nien, is applied both to youths whose families reside in the cities and who went to school there and to youths from peasant families who left their villages to attend secondary school, either at the commune center, where the market town is often located, or in the county (hsien) town. After graduation they return to their home villages. When the press chooses to be precise, the term hsia-hsiang chih-shih ch’ing-nien, “sent-down educated youth,” is used for the urban youths, and hui-hsiang chih-shih ch’ing-nien, “returned educated youth” (RY) for the peasant youths.