“I'm One of the Lame Ducks”-A Narrative Inquiry of the Sang Mentality of Elite Chinese University Students in the Crisis of COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed various restrictions and challenges to college students in China, significantly impacting their academic pursuits and daily lives. Particularly, it has had a profound impact on the employment prospects of Chinese college students. This qualitative study employs narrative inquiry to investigate the experiences of 15 college students from reputable universities who exhibit characteristics associated with the sang mentality. These participants share stories of academic failures and challenges in their family lives. They refer to themselves as lame ducks and identify as predominantly coming from small towns and having an exclusive focus on exam-oriented performance. The study reveals that the sang mentality primarily arises from the diminishing status of educational elitism, the increasing tendency towards class stratification in higher education, and the emergence of the Internet-based sang youth subculture.