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I understand that 广 means wide or broad,大 means big or large, which should be used to describe the size of a place, but not for the population of people.

Does the above case of 广大青年 refer to all the young people over a large and wide place? And in how big and large a place is appropriate in this connection?

In Xi Jinping's 2023 New Year Address, here is again the phrase 广大青年要厚植家国情怀, and the translation given by the official Xinhua News Agency is "Youngsters should keep their country in mind", without any explanation about 广大.

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    There is already an English phrase which suits 广大 reasonably well, and it's "...far and wide...."
    – Wayne Cheah
    Jan 1 at 15:06
  • My understanding is that, from a broader view, the speaker was referring to the majority of the youth group, which wasn't a non-distinguishable monolith but consisted of young people from a variety of backgrounds.
    – r13
    Jan 2 at 0:54
  • @r13 Take a look at this, the second paragraph where there is a 广大 gxjzy.com/info/1050/6182.htm
    – NanningYouth
    Jan 2 at 3:15
  • @WayneCheah Literally that is not 广大 but 远大.
    – NanningYouth
    Jan 2 at 3:18
  • "广大教职工入住了午休房" = 龐大數量的教职員和工人入住了午休房 - a great number of teaching and working staffs have moved into the rest house. Here, the interpretation of 广大 is somewhat different than the interpretation of 广大青年 - the vast majority of youth (from a variety of sources).
    – r13
    Jan 2 at 4:29

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广大 means both range and number are big. It can be used to describe people, places. Here are a few examples.

广大年青干部要不断提高自己的知识水平。

东北部的广大地区受到了天气变化的影响。

Hope this can help.

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Yes, 广大 (vast) is used to describe the size of an area, e.g. space, ocean, prairie

广大青年要厚植家国 is better understood as 广大(的)青年(社群)要厚植家国 - "The vast youth (community) should be firmly rooted in our country"

"Youths" can't be vast, but "communities" can because the size of a community is not only decided by its number of members but also by the area it covered

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I think it is a misspoken or poor choice of words. It would be correct if he says "广大青年群體/眾要厚植家国情怀,.." or "全體青年要厚植家国情怀,.."

You were correct in saying "广 means wide or broad,大 means big or large, combined means vast and numerous, which should be used to describe tangible/countable things such as the size of a land/territory, or a group of peoples, but not for the intangible/uncountable things such as the name of a place or a group (青年 is the name for the youth/young people as a whole).

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wide 这家报纸拥有广大读者。 That newspaper has reached a wide audience .

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