Smart in Media Discourse

subculture tightly tied to the online culture, within which things are remediated.

46

Understanding the type of sources used here helps to analyze Smart style and the

group of youths later.

Smart in Media Discourse

In Foucault’s definition, discourse is a system that produces knowledge through

language, and knowledge is used to regulate others’ conducts in modern society. 47

Since fashion is directly related to the body, fashion media exercise their power more

directly to us. Rocamora defines “fashion discourse” as “a meeting of statements

pertaining to various discursive formations and shaped by various fields, but whose

combination is specific to the field of fashion. ”48 It is constructed by designers,

museums, as well as the media. The latter is now already a vital part because of the

mediatization of fashion. As Eric Rothenbuhler defines, “mediatization” is “the

process by which activities of various social spheres come to be conducted under the

influence of the media, with the media, through the media, or by the logic of the

media. ”49 In regards to fashion practices, they “have adapted to, and been

transformed by, the media” , 50 be it fashion images on social media, virtual fashion

avatar, or the emerging online fashion commerce. Thus, looking at current media

46 Szarecki, Artur.

“Affective politics and online culture: Reserved’s digital marketing campaign in posthegemonic perspective. ” International Journal of Cultural Studies 24(6) (2021): 881-898. 47 Hall, Stuart. Representation: cultural representations and signifying practices. London: Thousand Oaks 1997. 48 Rocamora, Agnès. Fashioning the City: Paris, Fashion and the Media. London: I. B. Tauris 2009: 58. 49 Rothenbuhler, Eric W. “Continuities: Communicative Form and Institutionalization. ” In Lundby, Knut (ed.) Mediatization: Concept, Changes, Consequences. New York: Peter Lang 2009: 279, quoted in Agnès Rocamora, “Mediatization and Digital Retail. ” 50 Rocamora, Agnès. “Mediatization and Digital Media in the Field of Fashion. ” Fashion Theory 21(5) (2017): 505-522: 509.

discourse around Smart is necessary in such a time when fashion is mediatized and

necessary for such a group that has a strong connection to online media.

“We Were Smart” is a documentary made by director Yifan Li that was first

shown in public in December, 2019 at Guangdong Times Museum, a non-profit art

gallery in Guangdong Province. The 125 minutes long documentary consists of 67 in

person and 11 online interviews that Li conducted, and 915 short videos that he

bought from Smart members and other factory workers collected since 2017 (Figure

1). 51 There is no plot in the documentary, but through Smart members’ narration of

their own stories, the time line of the development or rise and fall of Smart are made

clear to the audience. According to Li, he first noticed this group in 2012 on the

Internet. He thought it was punk in China when he saw in the images youths with

their hair standing up and wearing makeup and colorful clothes. 52 He started to look

for these youths, but it was not until 2016 that he finally met people from the Smart

group and started to do interviews.

This documentary once again drew the public’s attention to this marginalized

and often misunderstood group (Figure 2, 3). Through 78 Smart members’ own

narration, this documentary shows the origin and development of this subculture, and

reveals the core of this style. Because of the first-hand insider perspective and the

abundant visual sources of the members’ photos and videos, this documentary

provides much useful information for learning about Smart members’ life and their

51 “Sha ma te wo ai ni. ” https://movie.douban.com/subject/34937935/ 52 China Newsweek. “Chong fang sha ma te: chu le tou fa, ta men ceng jing yi wu suo you (重访杀马特 :除了头发 , 他们曾经一无所有). ” December 7, 2020. http://www.inewsweek.cn/society/2020-12-07/11137.shitml