
China’s selfie culture: youth obsessed with the power of appearances - theriddlr
https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2141257/chinas-selfie-culture-youth-obsessed-power
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theriddlr
An unforeseen complication of meeting so many wang hong at once is that it is
hard to remember who is who. They tend to bear only an impression­istic
resemblance to their Meitu-enhanced profile pictures. But whenever I take out
my iPhone 6 to take a selfie with someone, I am rebuffed. People will
suspiciously ask what kind of camera I am using before walking away with
expres­sions ranging from offended to pity. “I can’t allow you to take a
picture of me with that camera – it’ll be too ugly,” a woman from Chongqing
tells me. I assure her that I am not a wang hong and will not be posting it,
and we reach a compromise: she will take a selfie of us on her Meitu phone,
edit her face and then send the photo to me.

