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Methodology
exemplify the commodification of memory and time, but in addition, this thesis wants
to show how this retro style can also be interpreted as an emotional reaction to the
social changes young people go through.
Personally, I have experiences of buying items from online stores of Y2K style,
both in China and in the US, and that is how I noticed this fashion trend. Apart from
fashion, I also consume media forms such as music, images, and TV shows from the
2000s both because I like to revisit my memories with aesthetics of the decade I grew
up in, and because it is an interesting phenomenon to me. Because of the close
relationship with this fashion and the familiarity with those online stores, I feel that I
can approach this topic more easily as a participant or enthusiast of the culture instead
of an outsider. However, my own emotional attachment to the style might impact the
interpretation in this thesis, and it could take on the color of my personal memories.
Methodology
Visual analysis of both Smart and Y2K styles is used in order to examine their
key characteristics and to compare how the new style is inspired by the old one and
what specific elements are referenced. Gillian Rose points out the importance of
visual analysis, saying that the visual is “central to the cultural construction of social
life in contemporary Western societies” , and visuality presents how vision is
constructed in different cultures. 43 Although her discussion is in the context of
43 Rose, Gillian.
“Researching Visual Materials: Towards A Critical Visual Methodology. ” In Rose, Gillian (ed.) Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials (Second Edition): 1-27: 3. London: Sage Publications 2006.
Western societies, it applies to contemporary China, too, because of the speeding up
of globalization after 2000s. The images that we are shown are constructed in various
ways. What we see and how we see are both culturally constructed. Doing visual
analysis of Smart in the 2000s could help to reflect on the cultural landscape back
then, and making comparisons of Smart and Y2K could further show how visuality is
constructed at different times for different groups.
For Smart in the 2000s, due to the lack of documentation and research, the main
source of images comes from the documentary “We Were Smart” , which will be
introduced later. For Y2K in the 2020s, four online stores on Taobao are chosen:
OTAKU ( 御宅奶油 OTAKU CREAM/yu zhai nai you OTAKU CREAM), eyeellike
(eyeellike 什麼是眼瞞/eyeellike shen me shi yan man), Virtual (虚轨Virtual Orbit/xu
gui Virtual Orbit), EGG ( 甜心 EGG/tian xin EGG). These independent designer
fashion stores were chosen because they all have several products that have “Y2K” in
the names besides the Chinese term “the 2000s hot girl” . This can help to avoid the
confusion of having different definitions of those terms from two languages. In
addition, I also had the chance to interview Tsunami, the owner and designer of
OTAKU. This can give insights in understanding what style Y2K means to young
people now. Because of the time and place differences, the interview was conducted
online through texting.
