Figure 4. “Old photo of Luo, from ‘We Were Smart. ’”

depressing work. 67 As a member said in the documentary, “Sometimes you went into

a [Inter]net bar and paid for a full night, you might end up chatting all night. ” In the

group, the “families” not only share opinions on style, but also help each other to get

jobs, or borrow from and lend money to each other. “What you couldn’t get at home,

you could get from them. ”68 In Luo’s opinion, 2016 is the year when Smart started to

revive. He got more interview inquiries, and thus more people started to notice this

group. 69 Before 2016 were three silent years for him, because the Smart group

became attacked since 2011. In 2013, the publication of Smart related content online

was gradually deleted because it was considered inappropriate. 70 They were bullied in

real life, too. In order to find a job in the factories, many of them had to cut their hair

and dye it back to black. Ever since then, this group almost disappeared.

71

Figure 4. Old photo of Luo, from “We Were Smart.

67 Li, Yifan. “We Were Smart. ”

68 Li, Yifan.

“We Were Smart. ” 69 The Paper. “ding zhe sha ma te jiao zhu chui de tou, he ta liao le liao ren sheng (顶着杀马特教主吹的头，和他 聊了聊人生).

”70 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). ” 71 Nan Fang Weekends. “’Mei ge wan sha ma te de ren dou you yi dian shang gan’ <sha ma te, wo ai ni> yu can ku qing chun (‘每个玩杀马特的人都有一点伤感 ’ <杀马特 ,我爱你>与残酷青春). ”

Director Li said that the audiences who can relate to his documentary the most

are mainly people now in the age of 20-35, probably because of the similar painful

experience at work, or because their empathy as people of the same age. 72 In Luo’s

view, the “older” , or the original Smart kids are those born between 1985 and 1995.

“Newer” Smart stylers born after 1995 do not have a sense of belonging to the

“family” as strong as the older one, and purely do it for fun. Newer Smarts also use

wigs more often, and their styles are less exaggerated.

73

Ambiguity appears when Smart fashions themselves inspired by pop cultures

they see online. Kaiser notes that ambiguity made by individuals as they fashion

themselves “may foster a kind of questioning or deliberation that may contribute to

further interaction (e.g., verbal exchange) and new negotiations of meaning or

understanding. ”74 These youths from rural areas who did not finish school imitate

Japanese or Korean pop stars, characters from animations or games with very cheap

clothes and exaggerated hairstyles meant to last a long time. 75 An outsider may not

know if they only want more attention or if they really think the style looks good.

Maybe the answer is not important to Smart anymore, for some of them only want to

be noticed and cared about even as an “abnormal” in outsiders’ eyes, as a member

72 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). ” 73 Nan Fang Weekends. “’Mei ge wan sha ma te de ren dou you yi dian shang gan’ <sha ma te, wo ai ni> yu can ku qing chun (‘每个玩杀马特的人都有一点伤感 ’ <杀马特 ,我爱你>与残酷青春). ” 74 Kaiser, Susan B. “Intersectional, Transnational Fashion Subjects” : 42. 75 Nan Fang Weekends. “’Mei ge wan sha ma te de ren dou you yi dian shang gan’ <sha ma te, wo ai ni> yu can ku qing chun (‘每个玩杀马特的人都有一点伤感 ’ <杀马特 ,我爱你>与残酷青春). ”

says, and some start to make fun of themselves making short videos to make money. 76

Figure 5 is a still image of some Smart members making videos. They have hairstyles

in purple, red, blue, blonde, brown, or several colors combined together. The stylized

way that these men’s hair stands, and the women’s short skirts with knee socks, and

shorts with crop tops look like styles that can be found in manga. It also resembles

punk style in the West, but in comparison, their clothes taken alone look less

aggressive, without typical punk elements such as leather jackets or ripped jeans that

are decorated with safety pins. And the hair is similar to Japanese Visual Kei style, too.

Styling themselves in a way that has elements of these different subcultures but is

different from all of them, these young people make exaggerated dance moves with

mountains in the background, composing a discordant but unique image. According to

the members, making videos make them feel like someone else and happy. It can even

make them feel superior than other workers. However, to make money, they need to

try really hard to do exaggerated moves to impress viewers. 77 This shows that even

when they are out of the factories, Smart still struggles to make a living and to be

understood in the society.

As de Certeau writes, the isolated “other” makes use of the open cracks in the

power’s surveillance. 78 For those factory workers in the 2000s, isolated as “the other” ,

the “crack” they found was that in the beginning the factories did not care about their

hairstyles as long as they worked efficiently, 79 so dressing themselves in such a flashy

76 Li, Yifan. “We Were Smart. ”

77 Li, Yifan.

“We Were Smart. ” 78 de Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: University of California Press 2011. 79 Li, Yifan. “We Were Smart. ”