Chaoyang Trap, a newsletter/podcast about contemporary culture in China, recently explored the concept of wanghong, which means something like "internet famous" crossed with the current aesthetics of urban "authenticity." It resembles "hipster" in that it is often pejorative and implies a certain amount of contrived effort to "naturally" attract attention or encapsulate an on-trend lifestyle. But it also points to places that have been put on the map or have been palpably reshaped by social media — "how certain sites in the city ... gradually took on new significance as the background to a thousand selfies and short videos." These sites become at once very specific and recognizable, but also extremely amenable to being taken out of context and implanted in someone's social media feed as an indicator of status or a willingness to participate in a trend.
The barn
The barn
The barn
Chaoyang Trap, a newsletter/podcast about contemporary culture in China, recently explored the concept of wanghong, which means something like "internet famous" crossed with the current aesthetics of urban "authenticity." It resembles "hipster" in that it is often pejorative and implies a certain amount of contrived effort to "naturally" attract attention or encapsulate an on-trend lifestyle. But it also points to places that have been put on the map or have been palpably reshaped by social media — "how certain sites in the city ... gradually took on new significance as the background to a thousand selfies and short videos." These sites become at once very specific and recognizable, but also extremely amenable to being taken out of context and implanted in someone's social media feed as an indicator of status or a willingness to participate in a trend.