China’s Selfie Obession
newyorker.com
newyorker.com
As someone who is American born and raised, I notice a LOT of cultural differences in SEA (South East Asia) and China.
One thing in particular I notice is a desire for "the ubiquitous Asian pretty girl face". Korean pop stars are the most famous for having their facial features so alike that they start to look extremely similar, but having having a selfie photoshopped internet face is actually a strong need felt by the majority of the girl population here.
The question I have: is it a short faze or does it have some longevity? How long will it last? I'll just give out some tentative thoughts:
1. The US has a relatively static class structure compared to Asia. With class signaling items like fashion, luxury, and outward appearance - the US in general derives little value from this because you don't have much social mobility anyways so it doesn't mean much. But in China, 90% of the population was poor 30 years ago. Over 300 million people are now middle class, and another 200 million people will be added by 2022. Class signalling items catch on very fast, and the market size keeps increasing.
2. The value system here is just different. The absence of American values - independence and freedom of speech - is very noticeable. Here there's a strong sense of group think, as if society as a whole agreed to some universal social norms or rules. "You should do this, you shouldn't do that" are normal things that you'll hear in conversations with friends. Sticking out or being different creates a strong reaction of fear and insecurity.
3. There's a strange position for "taste". The appreciation of things - culture, music, art, beauty - seems to be dwarfed by the value those things represent. Maybe I am reading too much into it, but taste seems to follow signalling, not the other way around. For example - the pretty Asian face - it seems to be much more about signalling than taste.
To summarize my thoughts, a combination of class mobility, growing audiences, and cultural values leads me to think services like this will continue to see success and it may take a generation (10-12 years) before cultural values shift in a different direction.