本文取徑文學與文化研究，重新定義當代中國的「小城經驗」，將行政尺度不同，但空間形態、文化經驗、生活質地與情感結構相近的中等城市、小城市及小城鎮納入「小城」範疇，進而聚焦「城市中國」脈絡下的慾望主體「小城青年」，探討90年代以來發展主義對於城市及城市個體身份的等級差序（hierarchy）形塑。近年來，中國城市化的激烈競爭催生了明星大都會與「小城」的二元對立，「小城青年」與「小鎮青年」作為流行詞彙，將等級化的地域身份轉換為關乎格調與品味的象徵符碼。本文在此一背景下聚焦郭敬明與其作品，說明何以這位當紅作家身為世界一級明星都會之成功人士，卻始終未能擺脫「小城青年」的身份標籤。文章首先爬梳中國現當代文學中「小城」與「小城青年」的歷史意涵。繼而參照上海文學中隱含的城市文化身份認同問題，探討郭敬明散文中的小城經驗與上海想像。最後分析郭敬明的代表作系列小說《小時代》，藉由批判性地解讀文本，闡述品味政治、階級身份與城市書寫之交互作用。本文試圖說明郭敬明如何透過書寫從「小城青年」變身為「新上海人」，而其急切展演新都會人文化身份想像的背後，正是當代中國故鄉認同由「鄉土」到「大都會」的歷史性轉變。

In an attempt to redefine “small towns,” which refer to towns and cities at or below the level of the third-tier as generic spaces produced by China’s urban development from the 1980s onwards and normally evoke the bad taste and worthlessness often attributed to counties, this paper seeks to examine the cultural politics and representations of classed selves in contemporary China. An outline of the urbanization of China’s small towns, intra-city competition, and the effects of this hierarchized space on subject formation will be followed by a close reading of the urban writings of a small-town-boy-turned Shanghainese writer Guo Jingming. Both Guo’s early writings on Shanghai fever and his novels of the city’s second-generation nouveau riche will be discussed in an effort to reach a critical understanding of the methods by which an entitled middle-class self-image—marked by the accumulation of cultural capital, conspicuous consumption and the aestheticization of one’s lifestyle—is formed in a first-tier global city as well as why the success stories of this Shanghai new comer are always haunted by the specter of his abandoned smalltown identity.