particular spaces - factories in suburban China. “Smart” now often used as a negative descriptive word further reflects the cultural hegemony, which acts as the authority who judges, subordinates, and later ban it.115 On the contrary, Y2K can be worn by youths from upper class, too, and it does not necessarily articulate struggles within a bigger social structure. It is very much a trend meant to be consumed - a commodification of time and memory.116
Escaping in the 2000s One thing in common for Smart and Y2K may be its capacity of allowing their wearers to be in another reality. Virtual space, as mentioned above, is important for the Smart group to interact with each other and to showcase their style. Virtual worlds may function as tourist locations where people can “escape from their everyday life and break ‘the constraints of the self.’”117 Luo said in the documentary that he will always only be a worker in the real world. Because of the level of education he got, he would never be promoted. On the contrary, in the world of Smart, he can make progress and earn a higher rank. “So it’s better for us to choose another path. Even if it’s a virtual path, it makes me happy.”118 In Smart’s group chats, online space becomes “a playground in which they can partially strip away cultural experiences [...]
Hebdige, Dick. “From culture to hegemony.” In Hebdige, Dick. Subculture: The Meaning of Style: 5-19. Niemeyer, Katharina and Keightley, Emily. “The commodification of time and memory: Online communities and the dynamics of commercially produced nostalgia.” New Media & Society 22 (9) (2020): 1639-1662. 117 Book, Betsy. “Travelling through Cyberspace: Tourism and Photography in Virtual Worlds.” Online. Available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=538182, quoted in Crowe, Nic and Bradford, Simon. “Identity and structure in online gaming: Young people’s symbolic and virtual extensions of self.” In Hodkinson, Paul and Deicke, Wolfgang (eds.) Youth Cultures: Scenes, Subcultures and Tribes: 217-230: 222. London: Taylor & Francis Group 2007. 118 Li, Yifan. “We Were Smart.” 115 116
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