Tobacco smoking among Peking University students – smoking as a resistance, lack of information on health problems, or a societal norm? A case-study in Peking University with students aged 18-28

Abstract: Within last four decades, smoking has become a major problem for the Chinese People’s Republic (hereafter: China) as there are annually approximately 1.2 million smoke-related deaths. There are several bans by the national and local governments that have been introduced during the last decade (in years 2008, 2011 and 2014) and bans thus can be said to have a certain tradition. The purpose of the thesis was to understand why the students of Peking University disobey the general smoking ban for public spaces in Beijing. Most academic literature regarding smoking has concentrated on health hazards and habits, but has so far neglected the roots of the reasons why the smoking bans are not working in Beijing. Thus, this thesis investigated in particular the young people’s reasons of smoking despite of a smoking ban in public places. Relying on twenty semi-structured interviews, the study found that although there are students who would fight against authority to maintain their rights as smokers, the main reason why students smoke under the smoking ban is because of the cultural background of tobacco friendliness that has an effect on their mindset, surrounds them in society and clouds their awareness on health hazards caused by smoking.