Identity work at a Normal University in Shanghai

Based upon ethnographic research, this article explores undergraduate students' experiences at a normal university in Shanghai focusing on the types of identities and forms of sociality emerging therein. Although students’ symptoms of disappointment seem to indicate the power of university experiences to extinguish purposeful action, this article suggests they are associated with students' identity work, central to which are attempts to cope with disintegrations to school-related identities and efforts to construct alternate senses of self.