For many young Chinese, the future doesn’t look so great: The job market is dire, wages are falling and competition seems endless. To cope, some are recreating scenes from the early 2000s, when the economy was growing rapidly.They are sharing images online of internet cafes, high-rises covered in blue glass and unusual youth sub-cultures. Here is how one post reads:You wake up to the sound of your mother’s voice. It’s a normal weekend in 2008. A typical Chinese living room from the early 2000s. After breakfast, you accompany her to the hair salon. On the way, you pass buildings with blue windows. Blue-tinted windows, common in early-2000s Chinese apartments. She takes you to KFC for lunch, your favorite. Tear-off KFC coupons, commonly delivered with newspapers. You run into some strangely dressed people, who call themselves “Shamate.” Shamate is a subculture of young migrant workers who try to stand out in a conformist culture through wild hair and makeup. Once it gets dark, you go home. You think to yourself, if only every day could be this happy.In memes, animations, old photographs and retro playlists posted online, people are recalling brightly colored exercise equipment; the ping of QQ, an early messaging platform; traditional dark-wood living room furniture; and the song “Beijing Welcomes You” from when China hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics.The trend has given rise to a digital subculture known as Chinese Dreamcore. It’s more than just nostalgia, online creators, artists and experts say. The genre serves as a “new type of digital pain reliever for young people in modern times,” as one blogger put it.It is an aesthetic that echoes a nostalgia and dreaminess popular elsewhere, like the revival of 1980s style in the United States, captured in the fandom for shows like “Stranger Things.”On Chinese social media sites, posts described as Chinese Dreamcore often begin with the idea that one has traveled back in time to wake up in one’s childhood home. You have finall
Fuente: NYT — Ver nota original
