
China’s Selfie Obession - roarktoohey
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/18/chinas-selfie-obsession
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spyckie2
Disclaimer - I'm an Asian American living in Hong Kong.

As someone who is American born and raised, I notice a LOT of cultural
differences in SEA (South East Asia) and China.

One thing in particular I notice is a desire for "the ubiquitous Asian pretty
girl face". Korean pop stars are the most famous for having their facial
features so alike that they start to look extremely similar, but having having
a selfie photoshopped internet face is actually a strong need felt by the
majority of the girl population here.

The question I have: is it a short faze or does it have some longevity? How
long will it last? I'll just give out some tentative thoughts:

1\. The US has a relatively static class structure compared to Asia. With
class signaling items like fashion, luxury, and outward appearance - the US in
general derives little value from this because you don't have much social
mobility anyways so it doesn't mean much. But in China, 90% of the population
was poor 30 years ago. Over 300 million people are now middle class, and
another 200 million people will be added by 2022. Class signalling items catch
on very fast, and the market size keeps increasing.

2\. The value system here is just different. The absence of American values -
independence and freedom of speech - is very noticeable. Here there's a strong
sense of group think, as if society as a whole agreed to some universal social
norms or rules. "You should do this, you shouldn't do that" are normal things
that you'll hear in conversations with friends. Sticking out or being
different creates a strong reaction of fear and insecurity.

3\. There's a strange position for "taste". The appreciation of things -
culture, music, art, beauty - seems to be dwarfed by the value those things
represent. Maybe I am reading too much into it, but taste seems to follow
signalling, not the other way around. For example - the pretty Asian face - it
seems to be much more about signalling than taste.

To summarize my thoughts, a combination of class mobility, growing audiences,
and cultural values leads me to think services like this will continue to see
success and it may take a generation (10-12 years) before cultural values
shift in a different direction.

