「殺馬特」中的現代性——關於城鄉空間生產之社會展示

學術引用 Citation

黃孫權、劉益紅（2016）。「殺馬特」中的現代性——關於城鄉空間生產之社會展示。收錄於邵大箴、范迪安、朱青生（編），《第34屆世界藝術史大會文集》，第一卷，頁1914-1921。北京：商務印書館。 Huang, Sun-Quan & Liu, Yi-Hong (2016). Smart to Modernity: A Social Display Within the Production of Urbanized Space. In Shao Dazhen, Fan Di'an & Zhu Qingsheng (Eds.), Proceedings of the 34th World Congress of Art History, Vol. I (pp. 1914-1921). Beijing: The Commercial Press.

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原始刊物頁面

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十九世紀中葉後的短短五十年，城市，景觀，資本，階級，意識形態，現代主義

全面鋪展成爲今日我們習慣的一切。無論如何，從1860到1960年代，社會現實的

共通性，逼使現代主義的理論家們希望能在劇烈都市過程中窺見社會、資本、技

術統合的真正力量，藉由看到其”展示”背後的階級，意識形態，景觀與現代性如何

協同地構築特定展示形態，如此便可揭開展示背後神祕面紗，抓住刺客，真實顯

現。如馬克思所言，時代的完滿乃由於它的形成而非存在。辯證地來看，只要我

們能夠處理特定歷史時刻下的技術─社會條件，亦即表徵條件，那麼展示的生成

就在那兒了。

捕抓殺馬特兩種觀點

2013年11月5日，中國一個有172萬粉絲的用戶在新浪微網誌上貼了三張爆炸頭青

年男子的背影照片。他開心地寫道，“在街上活捉一隻殺馬特” ，還補充說他的發

型像“某種病毒的分子結構”，隨後引來各式轉貼，評論與嘲諷。鳳凰網2014年的

一個圖片新聞《車間裏的90後》，一羣90後的姑娘小夥在廣東珠海某企業車間裏

的工作照，他們髮型怪異，穿着誇張，氣質詭異。躁動的年紀卻做着流水線上單

調且乏味的工作。圖片註解中提到，他們都是一羣來自農村或城鄉結合部的“90

後”新生代農民工，媒體稱之爲”沒有故鄉的一代”，中國獨特城鄉二元格局之外的“第

三元”。苦悶的青春，自由的只有他們的髮型。代表性看法是孫立平的”斷裂三部

曲”，一個是真正的城市社會，一個是真正的農村社會，還有一個是夾在兩者之間

http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2688645527

http://talk.ifeng.com/online/management/detail01/02/32664406_12.shtml

的農民工社會。孫立平的觀點是直覺自然式的斷分，是芝加哥都市社會學派的基

本看法，都市過程中社會文化的混雜紋理是馬賽克鑲嵌區塊，很難融合入都市文

明。殺馬特工人處境使他們拒絕來自農村的父輩文化，嚮往都市品味卻沒有足夠

的社會資本。

在文化上，”殺馬特”起興於網絡文化，有人惡意地使用這套語言和形象，用以嘲諷

取樂生活在城鄉結合部的青年。與之前流行起來的”洗剪吹組合”、”鄉村非主流”，”

農村工業重金屬”一起，構成了中國新生代農民工形象。有些學者以西方次/反文化

做對比，認爲是殺馬特是C2C（copy to China）系列之一，是一連串西方都市過

程的中國版青年次文化，可以接續着泰迪青年（teddy boy）、光頭仔

（skinheads）、摩登派（mods）、龐克（Punk）、七零年代的華麗搖滾，日本

視覺系，韓國偶像歌舞團體等。文化研究要我們找出或理解其中反抗的意涵，解

讀表意實踐（signifying practices) 的可能性。只要能拆解其符碼，霸權、權力、存

在於後面的”真實”世界即會浮現。在優秀的模範生迪克·赫伯迪格手裏，風格的意

義一書中，所有的符號都具抵抗意義的，就算女龐克手上刺了納粹標誌只是想引

人注目，也是有意義的。(Hall & Jefferson, 1975)《通過儀式的抵抗》一書中，文

化是“……這樣一種層面，社會羣體在該層面上發展了一種獨特的體驗形式，賦予

其社會以物質的……體驗的表現形式”。如果我們把它作爲切入點，那麼，我們會

發現，每一種亞文化對“社會原料”的處理方式是各有不同(Hebdige, 1979)。

主體透過儀式（體驗的表現形式），能夠對應到大敘事（象徵與意義的世界），我們

只要建構其關連（解碼），找到社會原料物質化的證據就行了。是文化研究建立了龐

克，還是相反？這裏假設了大敘事（象徵與意義）有本源性存在，有一個仍未被組織

的”社會原料”在行動者與意義之間。但如果不存在對應關係，編了碼卻無需解碼呢？

當我們發現中國殺馬特不能像英國龐克樂團性手槍嘲笑英女王的這麼叛逆又該如何？

OVA版本的殺馬特（網絡空間的殺馬特）

1， 城鄉結合部

讓我們回到文章一開始引用的兩張當代中國主要的視覺形象：土豪金（bling

culure）與殺馬特（smart, shamate) 。一人在天津港的豪華私人遊艇裏抱着小狗

舒服的坐着，另外一人在髮廊洗頭工作。前者展示優渥，後者房東不讓攝影師進

房，只能在租屋處外拍攝，姑娘還在牆上寫上”我愛你”。他們的穿着與出現的空間

一樣重要。城鄉結合部與生活其中的年輕人同時被指認爲”怪胎”，”暫時性社會構

成”，不是現代性城市及其文化，只是邁向現代性之路的短暫痛苦，勞力工作與低

土豪金（bling culture）本來是蘋果爲了中國市場在2012年推出的，現在通用於形容新富階級的炫耀式風

格。代表性展示可見此網站上的照片與說明 http://www.chinafile.com/multimedia/photo-gallery/rolling-it

殺馬特見後文討論，典型的圖片與社會背景描述可見 http://www.chinafile.com/multimedia/photo-gallery/

migrant-hair

廉消費的原物料表現出來的病徵。現在中國有14億人口近半數住在城市中。 據估

計到2025年前還要增加3.5億，其中超過2.5億新增人口將來自農村。中國的特殊

體制，集體性國家解放分散的個體化自由市場，藉着壟斷性集中與分散競爭的平

衡策略，在短期內可以累積巨大的財富和提升經濟力量。這是階級壟斷式地租。

如果這是痛苦，恐怕不會是短暫的。因爲城鄉空間的生產方式—城鄉結合部—有

助於統一此種矛盾。

2，中產階級的意識型態

一般說法，土豪金與殺馬特的名字都來自城市裏的小知識青年（屌絲，cock wire,

diaosi）的創作。屌絲源於李毅吧的爭吵怒罵語言，被罵的敵手遂以屌絲自稱。屌

絲嘲諷髮型誇張，使用便宜山寨機，拙劣模仿的農工人子弟第二代，殺馬特也自

成團體，並在網絡社羣自我增生。這是不酷的中國版酷兒（Queer）故事。

因爲對邁向現代之路有所想像，我們也可以如此解釋，這三個幾乎在同一時間

（2012-3）出現的網絡詞彙與團體形象，土豪金，屌絲，殺馬特三者都被不在場

的適切的中產階級（decent Middle Class）的意識形態所區分出來(Bourdieu, 1986)。

他們被不在場的集體意識形態所展示。中產階級作爲現代主義的中堅分子，中國

改革開放新浮現之階級，必須建構出自己的意識形態力量，其表現形式是對他者

的否定，而且是雙重否定。對於農民工的第二代，他們否定其社會資本，對於新

富階級，他們否定其文化品味，而執行者是他們失敗的胚胎屌絲們。藝術史上類

似的是現代藝術家，他們因爲不滿於巴結貴族的藝術（bourgeois art），也瞧不起

爲了工人的藝術（social art)，所以只能暫時懸置藝術的意義與內容，強調”爲了藝

術而藝術”(Bourdieu, 1996)。中產階級是一個空的符徵，沒有準確刻度的量尺，只

能透過兩邊的界線移動來決定自身。

3，故事消費資料庫消費

殺馬特猶如動漫的寫實主義。要解釋此種肉身化、物質化的動漫，我們勢必要從

赫伯迪格轉到東浩紀深刻的研究成果。東浩紀以”後現代的動物性”來掌握日本御宅

族文化的特性與萌之構成，以故事消費結構與資料庫消費結構來區分現代故事與

後現代網絡文本(東浩紀, 2015)。御宅族文化與網絡原生小說表現的是社會─技術

條件轉變。被認知的御宅族普遍有着”以交換爲中心，欠缺深度溝通”的特徵，在有

限的資訊空間裏勉強的維持自我形象，且在溝通變得比過去更爲淡薄的前提下，

一種人爲的補償。(東浩紀, 2012)。

八零九零後的殺馬特是成長於下崗工人與移民大潮相互競爭工作，都市過程最爲

激烈的時刻。時間晚於御宅族卻享有類似的社會溝通不良，非社會的且孤獨的動

物化處理情感方式，更貴的資訊空間成本，更低的資訊流通可能。

網吧爲他們提供了四毛錢一小時的娛樂，在這個唯一能夠消費得起的休閒空間

裏，他們上QQ刷閃鑽（在線時間越長等級就會上升），裝扮QQ空間（花錢設計

網頁）成爲紅人，閃鑽的級別，QQ裝扮的級別，提供了現實裏別無選擇但虛擬空

間可以升級的階級框架。透過勁舞團、QQ炫舞等遊戲，他們成爲鍵盤上的音樂

龐克，鄉村非主流因網絡交往晉升爲更聚核的殺馬特族羣，如”殺馬特葬愛家

族”，”殘血貴族”等族系建構外敵鬥爭，用火星文創造自己家族徽章（他們的id都

會出現家族符號）。他們所沉浸的網遊就是他們實踐網絡身分，提高認同，交友

與奮鬥的教科書和創意工程，幾乎是他們人生能夠成名，能與之奮鬥的唯一機

會。玩遊戲就是他們的人生。山寨手機拯救他們免於數位鴻溝脫線（unplug）。

這是一個網絡自我增生的社會展示系統，透過”儀式”打造了超級社交機器（super

social apparatus），殺馬特存在其中也自我製造。換句話說，他們並非在文化層

面上去體驗的表現形式，他們就是社會物質原料及特殊體驗形式。他們生產自

己，是奈格里抱以希望的生命政治的自我生產（Biopolitical production）(Hardt &

Antonio Negri, 2000)，類似的情形同時發生在富士康廠，科技產業鏈中組裝線的手工勞動

者，被訊息化的新勞工階級身上(Qiu, 2009, 2013)。

生命政治生產形式是網絡社會的特徵。如果生物權力（bio-power)是透過故事消費

（反應了相同世界觀的作品羣）來幻想自身能夠被社會主流敘事接受，是傅柯的

規訓效果。如《小時代》裏新興中產階級的愛情故事或《歡樂頌》裏和諧的階級

相處。那生命政治在數位原生世代（Digital natives）的網絡文化中就是”資料庫的

消費”，他們從同樣的資料庫中無限的編織出作品，既消費自身的編織品，也消費

設定的集聚。

解釋故事性消費的圖示

殺馬特們運用可負擔的低廉打扮，自由的在英國龐克、日本視覺系，韓國歌舞

團、甚至工人西裝，農民光棍，直播網紅明星裝扮的資料庫元素中編織作品，創

意編造小故事來確定”屬性資料庫”的特性（桀驁，自由，貴族，狂），成立家族創

造傳說，構成被注視第一層次消費。其次，他們也消費了網絡上相關設定的集聚

（流行文化中有關髮型，穿着，自拍，美顏，舞步等；網站設計的排字動圖，背

景圖，火星文等）。設定的聚集是非敘事的集合，是匿名/統計/網遊的世界。

殺馬特不是山寨，因爲他們並非複製來完成原創的傳承，他們留着龐克頭但不是

無政府主義或動物保護者，臉妝成日本視覺系卻不歌唱，韓式美白顏值哥也未必

跳舞。他們是東浩紀所謂的”另種的擬像”，指向他種資料庫。所有對殺馬特（土豪

金亦同）的攻擊都是從原創觀點（中產階級意識型態）出發然而，網絡文化中評

斷複製品好壞的不是像不像原作，而是與資料庫中的角色，設定和特定（如萌）

音樂舞蹈類大型免費網絡遊戲，遊戲內採用虛擬現金系統銷售虛擬角色的服裝、表情、配件等，還提供類型

多樣的功能道具。大部分的道具是需要通過現金購買虛擬貨幣才能得到。遊戲內含單人自由模式，團隊模式，

情侶模式，舞會模式，挑戰者賽模式。

鄉村非主流，簡稱“鄉非”。是一種造型誇張、受人譏諷的藝術表現形式，歸爲非主流一類，最開始稱之爲“造

型失敗的非主流”，吸引人眼球的地方主要表現在髮型、穿着與氣質上。

要素有關，衡量好壞的是複製與資料庫的距離而非與原創的距離。擬像好壞是

由關連的資料庫元素來保證的。假設沒有既有的視覺系形象資料庫，濃妝，屍

妝，黑暗但閃亮，社會性別模糊元素，將毫無展示的效果，無法被指認到特定羣

體所參照的資料庫。資料庫是網絡不斷生產，通過匿名，統計，文本累積與算法

累積而成。殺馬特風格，不是複製和原創的傳承關係，受限於自己資訊空間，他

們對既有的資料庫部分搜尋運用後，創新加入日常生活可得之元素，番外篇大量

湧進正文本。網路上的殺馬特形象多半來自他們自己的創作與解釋，他們增添他

們所參照的資料庫，於是成爲另種的擬像，指向他們自己的資料庫，他們的”江

湖”。

展示（無限的編織作品）就是殺馬特創造意義的全部。這也是爲何文化研究的儀

式抵抗在其中很難發現對應關係。能夠辨識真正的龐克文化，是因爲我們參照現

代性某種完形，在西方已經發生過的設定及其敘事結構。同樣的，對現代性重要

議題與理論生產，都有其參照的敘事結構來決定什麼是真正的重要的”現代性”問

題，是否”現代過”。

第二張圖示解釋

也因爲殺馬特的技術與社會資本不足，很快地他們創建的形式陷入重複，新添的

形式逐漸被操作性的登錄而僵固下來，成爲更有效率的資本累積符號。這注定了

殺馬特在2012─2014烽火如烈卻快速的褪去的原因（我們猜想土豪金和屌絲也會

如此），至今只剩被高度辨識的風格，能夠被反覆演繹，展示的符號。資本傾向

支持任何的社會解放形式，只要不妨礙控制勞工的整體策略，而且可以形成可利

用的獨特利基市場。殺馬特無論頂着何種髮型上生產崗位，只要能夠明日照常上

班，通宵上網購買新發型與論戰，讓電商與網絡公司賺錢，有何不可？

4，形式吸納

殺馬特圖像向公衆展示的過程很能說明資本主義的形式吸納（formal

subsumption）。剛開始，殺馬特藉故事性組圖引爆網絡討論，有理髮店中的殺馬

特，春運火車站返鄉的殺馬特，公共廣場聚會合照的殺馬特，網吧視頻截圖中的

殺馬特，還有撰文殺馬特傳奇的家族人物風雲榜，高度關注的是髮型與反萌要

素。第二階段是淘寶出現一批殺馬特風格假髮配飾店，更有殺馬特家族簽名風格

製作設計服務網，將殺馬特表皮造型商品化，通過快手app和直播軟件借題發揮創

造網紅大號。2014年之後殺馬特羣體真身退溫，成爲消費物件與符號消費。

中國年輕的網絡藝術家苗穎的作品《當“殺馬特”遇上“洗剪吹”遇上嗶哩嗶哩》是非

常好的”終結”殺馬特的例子。她採樣了兩個視頻（左上角是來自YouTube 的視頻

Dizzy Wright 的官方音樂錄像帶 fashion，另一個來自彈幕視頻網站嗶哩嗶哩的一

東浩紀指出的的例子是，我們很難說出幾個八零九零年代有名動漫作家的名字，但對萌要素應該具備什麼卻

非常清楚。年輕人可能也無法講出幾個歐日視覺系樂團的名字，他們的作品或重要影響，但對視覺系的裝扮要

素卻也瞭然於胸。

首山寨音樂錄影帶《當殺馬特遇上洗剪吹》，並配合左下角是芬達的gif動圖和王

老吉的靜態圖片。右上角是一個時裝模特，神情看似在注視着背景圖片中擁擠嘈

雜的人羣。國外藝評家ROS HOLMES 指出藝術家熱情擁抱中國的多元性和不可預

期的結果，認爲中國原生網絡文化不僅只是全球消費的副產品。苗穎站在樂觀態

度看待支特網（Chinternet）的產出，而非一昧指責爲拙劣的模仿和荒謬而已。盡

管如此，我們更寧願說此作品只是從消費現實的“屬性資料庫”中選取拼貼而已。她

貼近了殺馬特剛剛開始的本質，卻遠不如殺馬特有創作力，她落後於她要爲之爭

取的大衆。她選取的是已經被定型的資料庫形式，將殺馬特不甚穩定的形象加入

已有的商品符徵系統，定位登錄，終結資料庫欄位。人們才能辨識商品消費符號

對比出來的表現形式。她什麼都沒有多說，也不可能說出什麼。因爲消費裏頭沒

有意義，拼貼各種消費景象也沒有意義，消費僅僅是資本主義必須克服的難題，

必要的時候，資本主義會給出任何可以應對的價值。

5，賽博空間

殺馬特的出現也引起我們對賽博空間（cyber space）的思考。2010年，由一百多

位80後的網友參與制作的《看你妹之網癮戰爭》引發大量的討論。視頻首發於艾

澤拉斯國家地理論壇，隨後即被轉載至各大視頻網站，在短短几天內獲得了上百

萬的點擊量。影片以九城和網易兩家公司爭奪《魔獸世界》的運營權爲主要框

架，融入了與戒網癮有關的“楊永信電擊療法事件”。電影把對遊戲內容的審批、兩

家公司的明爭暗鬥、文化部與新聞出版總署對運營權的爭奪等都嘲諷了一遍，還

穿插了當年的網絡熱點事件，如釣魚執法，杭州”70碼”案等。王洪喆對於此事件

分析的文章非常有價值，簡潔勾勒了以網遊/網癮問題所構造的虛擬與現實空

間，如何透射出改革開放以來城市文化、青年身份、社會焦慮變遷。

在互連網剛剛興起的年代，賽伯空間（cyber space）被設想爲另一個新世界，可

完整自主存活運作。漸漸的我們發現賽伯空間不是另一空間，也不是無空間

（spaceless），而是與現實空間的脈絡下疊加而成的。meetup.com的成功表示

了人們仍有面對面的需要，在網絡空間裏找尋同好而在物理空間碰面。兩款以

GPS和AR技術爲基礎的ingress和pokeman遊戲更顯示了賽伯空間反映了具體城鄉

差距。Clay Shirky影響廣泛的書中清楚提及透過網路確實有建立社會新資本的可

能，但這與現實需求息息相關。網絡可以滿足特殊需求，少數癖好，堅持己念者

找到同好，也爲少數偏激意識型態分子找到宣傳與認同管道（如支持厭食和

ISIS）。對照Clay Shirky書中段落與《看你妹之網癮戰爭》裏片中最高潮的一段網

民心聲，會發現如此的契合，這也能解釋殺馬特的現象。殺馬特是在網絡與城鄉

結合部裏的空間生產中誕生的。網絡建造了更爲堅固的認同，填補了原本社會在

都市過程中失去的功能。

“過去要人們聚集在一起非常難，而要讓已形成的羣體瓦解卻很容易。而現在，要

集合潛在的羣體很簡單，而且羣體一旦集合在一起了，在面對大環境的冷漠甚至

是直接的反對時非常團結堅定。”(Shirky 2105)

在這一年裏，我和其他熱愛這個遊戲的人一樣

認真地擠着公交車上班

認真地消費着各式各樣的食品

不管裏面有沒有不認識的化學成分

我們沒有因爲工資微薄而抱怨過

沒有因爲你們拿着從我微薄工資里扣的稅

住着聯體排屋而心理失衡過

在這一年裏，我和其他熱愛這個遊戲的人一樣

爲水災，爲地震而痛心哭泣

爲載人航天，爲奧運會而加油喝彩

我們打心眼裏，就不想我們在任何一個方面

落後於這個世界上的任何一個民族

而這一年裏，卻因爲你們這些人

我們遲遲不能與地球上其它國家的玩家一起，一決高下

（引自《看你妹之網癮戰爭》）

邁向現代的殺馬特（聰明）之路

http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s

__biz=MjM5NDEyNDQ4OQ==&mid=2657432289&idx=1&sn=6e69b87855e721674f481a346e1d0868&sce

ne=2&srcid=0827sNeUx2GmXxA5PPLCWtZ1#rd

展示意味著有人有意的，系統地組織材料公佈於公共領域，或作爲機制或制度代

理人，實行有目的公衆宣傳、溝通、意識形態的說服。是左右兩個世界都熟悉的

媒介操作，也是文化霸權的核心鬥爭。羣體視覺生產過程在本文中稱爲社會展示

（social display）的原因，是因爲並非有人收集特定的物件與圖片來展示給公衆，

而是透過羣體相互指派以及自我區分，自我增殖生產而形成。在網絡空間上，社

會展示有親密的羣體支持，如貼吧的對戰而分敵我，臉書和推特微博上贊與轉

貼，論壇上的狂頂，家族的動員等。在實體空間中，社會展示則是差異地理學的

視覺特徵。

社會展示多半由宰制性的（常常表現爲隱性，否定性，遮蔽性）意識型態所作

用，有時候可以打破認知秩序而成爲抵抗否定性，揭露性的力量。”被殺馬特”的風

格是中產階級意識型態否定他者，遮蔽自身立場的作用，除斑清潔消毒後的邁向

現代性。殺馬特風格則是打破認知秩序，取消（誤認或者根本不知道）認知秩序

應該對應的象徵意義世界的關聯性，從而自我生產。當帝國已經沒有實質空間可

以征服，身體是最後的疆界時，殺馬特之路確實比較聰明。殺馬特使得芝加哥都

市社會學派的分析失效，讓文化研究可能是最堅固的─透過儀式的抵抗─的傳統

找不到爲之辯說的方式。他們繞道去了能夠被指認之處的後方。可惜我們花了太

多時間在辨識他們，而不是接續他們的工作。

作爲“社會表現”的殺馬特，僅僅將其美學放在政治審判席前面仔細檢閱是不足的。

發展中國家跟隨在第一次西方”發生過”的現代性之路後面，他們的糾結如現代後現

代之爭成爲我們現代性推延的苦惱。精緻與低俗藝術（high art/low art)，現代的與

庸俗的，全球與本土，西方與中國，這些二元論述都要追溯其對應的大敘事結構

裏的象徵意義才能成立。由是我們常常錯過生機蓬勃，瞬間急逝的“路邊風景”。路

邊風景就是OVA，就是他種擬像，對應着尚未被收錄辨識匿名/統合/算法/增殖的

資料庫。如果我們已經熟悉且心領神會第一次”出現過”的現代性道路，那麼聰明的

方法是將視覺和交往變成社會和空間過程來對待，作爲推進生命政治再生產的，

暫別曾經帶給我們巨大圖像學研究之影響。

參考文獻

東浩紀. (2012). 動物化的後現代：御宅族如何影響日本社會. 臺北: 大藝出版.

事實上，網絡廣告業比我們更清楚social display和regular display的差別，後者廣告方式於網站上獨立或差

頻出現，而前者則與推薦者的內容一同產生，其效果比正規式的展示好得多。

---

English

Smart to Modernity: A Social Display Within the Production of Urban-Rural Space

Huang Sun-Quan / Liu Yi-Hong

and bodification, we are bound to sway from Dick Hebdige to Hiroki Azuma profound

research on Japanese sub-cultures. Hiroki Azuma grasps the characteristic Japanese

Otaku culture and the formation of ‘Kawaii (cute)’ with the concept of ‘Post-modern

animal’, which leads to a socio-structural differentiation of Narrative Consumption

Structure and Database Consumption Structure, to distinguish between modern

narratives and Postmodern web-based context (Hiroki Azuma, 2015). Japanese anime

was originated from the United States, with the lack of technology, it presents itself as a

Limited Animation. Such manifestation in return has created a global obsession on

Japanese anime. Dedicated to redefine a ‘Japanese Culture’, Otaku was not built upon

the groundwork of the traditions, but rather on the destruction of traditions. With the

defeat of World-War-II, hopes were casted upon the United States production of raw

materials to restore the once beautiful postwar Japan, where Western magic and

Japanese witchcraft, magic and robot can be blurred and born into a new species.

Otaku culture and network-based native novel, reflects a manifestation of a

transformation socio-technical conditions, where ‘Otaku’ was coined and defined as a

sub-culture in 1989, with the characteristics of ‘exchange based and lack of deep

communication’; such attempt of barely maintain its self-identification in the limited

informatic space, could be seen as an artificial compensation within the thin and speedy

communicative social premise. (Hiroki Azuma, 2012).

The 80s and 90s generation of ‘Smart’ was born out of a period of radical urbanization,

where both laid-off workers of stated-own companies and inter-state immigrants were

competing for work.Having its later arrival compared to Otaku, nevertheless, ‘Smart’

shared similarities such as, adverse social communication, non-social solitary animal in

regards to emotions and sentiments, the controversial conditions of the ever-more

expensive cost of informatic space and the ever-lower flow of informatic exchange

possible. They are found amongst the spaces of urban fringes, amidst train station and

shops, hair salons and factories, occasionally appeared as a collective in break-dance

battle in a square, or appreciates and affirms each other in railway stations and public

squares.

Internet cafes offer them with four-cents hourly rate of cheap leisure opportunities, in this one and

only affordable leisure space (as oppose to chilling on a yacht with a Golden Apple Mobile hunting

Tao-Bao treasures), they escaped the social reality and became existential through swiping on QQ,

playing Jewels ( as oppose to games which the longer you play the higher the level you

proclaimed), decorate their QQ dresses (as oppose to spending money on designing web pages),

become internet-celebrities; the level of Jewels and QQ dresses, provides a virtual reality space

where rising up from its own stratification is possible within their fix social stratum. Through the

game Audition Online, they become Punk musicians, organizations such as the ‘Smart Family’,

‘Smart-Aristocracy’ and ‘Smart-er’ to form family kinship and social solidarity against contest with

foreign enemies; using Martian scripture as their emblem (they the internet IDs often appear with

such emblem). They are immersed in games ( ‘Audition Online’ is a good example) , where they

practice their network identity, improve social image, cooperate on projects while building their

social relations; over-night fame is almost possible, and becomes the only motivation to strive for.

Their game is their life. Copy-left smartphones to save them from the digital cliff and being unpluged

from the network, which reflects through the rapid uprising of applications such as Kuaibo and

Kuaishou from high-usages in second-tier cities. This is a social media system of self-proliferating

network, a super social apparatus was created through ‘ceremony’, the presence of which Smart

self-fabricated its own image. In other words, they are not a form of cultural manifestation, but the

very ingredients of society and its form of experience itself. They produce their own, which is the

key Antonio Negri saw as ability of Biopolitical production (Hardt & Antonio Negri, 2000). The similar

with the city’s culture. The position the “smart” workers are in as workers causes

them to refuse the cultural influence from their parents in the countryside. They

long for the good taste of the citizens but lack the capital required. Thus

difference and approval if in the city, description of community determinacy, even

tolerance and understanding have become the key points of Chinese

sociologists attempting to grasp the “smart”.

From the cultural perspective “smart” took shape in net-culture, people used

make up and dressed themselves up like a Migrant Worker or someone who was

an internet sensation from a second tier urban/rural region. By using these forms

of speech and appearance maliciously to mock and jeer at people from people

who hail from the regions where cities and countrysides meet. The migrant

workers appearance is represented in bands and groups like the popular HKT

（吹洗剪, hair wash, cut, blow）, village alternative, and village industrial heavy

metal. The alteration made the the South Korean band Shinee’s “smart meets

HKT” is the most well-know example. There are some scholars who have

compared the trends to western subculture counterparts, claiming “smart”

belongs to China’s C2C series (Copy to China). A concession of Chinese young

subculture modeled after its western counterpart can be seen a continuation of

teddy boys, skinheads, mods, punks, glam rock, Japanese Visual Kei, as well as

idolized Korean dance groups. Cultural research requires us to find the

implication of resistance and decipher its possible signifying practices by

disassembling the embedded code the unconscious result of hegemony, power,

and knowledge make visible that which is the “real”.

In the book “Resistance Through Rituals：Youth Subcultures in Post-War Britain” culture

is described as that which social groups who have developed a unique form of expression

in which society then materializes these forms of expression. That being said if we enter at

that point then we will find that the means in which every subculture handles social

material is different.

The OVA version of “smart” ( smart in network space)

1， urban-rural fringe

Now think back on the two imaged ideology of contemporary Chinese mentioned

previously: bling culture and shamate; one coddling their pooch aboard a luxurious private

yacht , the other a lowly hairwasher in a beauty parlor. The former flaunts their sumptuous

lifestyle, whilst the ban of the latter's landlord relocates their photo shoots to obscure spots

where the girl writes I love you on the wall. What their attire and where their show is critical

joint. A city dweller try for a Punk look will be a punky which lacking of Punk’s essential, nor

be the shamate. The old districts of Shenzhen or the sixth ring of Beijing are urban villages

and city fringes nor urban-rural fringe, is all - those living on the border are regarded as

freaks and temps. It's not the modern urban culture. It’s a growing pain of modernization.

It’s a symptom of cheap social raw material and cheap labor.

According to a 1996 UN report, 80 million Chinese are members of the country’s “floating

population”, the majority of which are in search of employment; the State Planning

Simmel, G., Frisby, D., & Featherstone, M. (1997). Simmel on culture : selected writings. London:

Sage Publications.

video “When smart meets HKT”, then the fanta gif and the one corner and

the Wanglaoji (王老吉）in the other complete the image. In the upper right

hand corner is a model whose expression suggests she is walking through

a crowd of noise people. Art critic ROS HOLMES points out that the artist

embraced whole heartedly the diversity and unforeseenness of the

Chinese internet, saying that it is not merely a by product of globalization.

Miao ying takes an optimistic perspective in regards to the production of

the “Chinternet”,instead of viewing it as a low-grade outlandish copy. Even

so it would be more beneficial to state that this piece is a compilation of

images derived from the reality of consumption within the “Database

Properties”. Though she resembled the Smarts beginnings she failed to

possess their creative force, she lacks in her effort to please the crowd.

She has already chosen a solid form of database, in which she then

transfers to a system of existing product symbols, which she logs into and

terminates the original database. By doing so people are capable of

recognizing the contrasting symbols of commodity consumption in its

expressed form. She hasn't said too much, and there isn't anything to

really say, in that there is no inherent meaning in consumption, therefore

bringing together different forms of consumption in the form off a collage is

also meaningless. Consumption is but a predicament that Capitalism must

overcome, and if necessary will give any corresponding value to do so.

5，Cyber space

The emergence of smart calls us to reflect on cyberspace as we know it.

In 2010 more than 100 users came together to produce the film “War on

「殺馬特」中的現代性-- 關於城鄉空間生產之社會展示

Smart to Modernity：

A social display within the production of urban-rural space

（draft）

Huang Sunquan Liu yihong

Zhang Luyi sits with her dog inside a yacht at SO! Dalian.

quote form http://www.chinafile.com/multimedia/photo-gallery/rolling-it

Jia Yue, 17, Yi Du Fa Yi (Metropolitan Hair Art). Jia’s job is to wash customers’ hair. Her employer

didn’t let her bring the photographers to her dormitory, so instead she pointed out a pink-tiled

building nearby with the words, “I love you” written in English on it.

quote from http://www.chinafile.com/multimedia/photo-gallery/migrant-hair

professor of NKNU, Taiwan, visiting professor of CAA. detector of INS.

doctoral student of CAA

In art, above all in architecture and interior decoration, bad taste had never set

the fashion so much as now. For the newly rich, who are wealthy enough to want

to shine, but not old enough to shine without ostentation, nothing is too

expensive or pompous.

— Arnold Hauser The Social history of art vol4. p36

The spectacle mentioned above is one which most Chinese are familiar, but in

fact isn't a portrayal of consumer tendencies practiced by China’s nouveau riche.

Its art historian Arnold Hauser describing the new appearance of the bourgeois

in Paris during the second empire period of 1860. One hundred and fifty years

later Paris, the symptom of Capital of modernity is taking center stage in

Chinese cities in the form of OVA (original video animation): the re-planning of

cities, land-finance expansion, the diminishing of historical streets and traditional

stores, the rise of flaneur and petty bourgeois. The growing tension between

immigrants and citizens, poor working conditions for the Working Class, and a

flourishing art scene. To say it uses the form of OVA implies that because the

west has already partaken in the process of modernization, development in

other regions of the same sort is not all that novel. As was stated by Stuart Hall

so long ago with “The west and the rest”.

During the first period of modernization there was ample discourse surrounding

cities, modernity as well as display, Benjamin’s writings regarding Paris during

the 1860’s state that Francois-Marie Charles Fourier’s utopia was possible

because of the advancements made in technology( at the time man already

possessed the ability to bend large steel beams and produce large sheets of

glass Ideal for display). Its possible to imagine the triforium street meeting the

societal and technological development needs at the time. In the end turning

each civilization into a commodity to be displayed at the World expo, thus the

city itself becomes fetishism (Benjamin & Tiedemann, 1999). In David Harvey’s

writings Capitalism has created a spacial mode capable of self accumulation,

and financial land capital has replaced the Sacré-Cœur once a symbol of

revolution. Capitalist cities are an attempt to make Capitalism seem like the

epitome of human civilization. (Harvey, 2003) In Clark’s writings the rise of

impressionism also gave rise to a social group who had “the right to leisure” and

were capable of enjoying life， a theme which was reflected in their paintings.

This reflects the class consciousness and is a symbol of specific historical

conditions present at that time.

Bourdieu writes about the way in which modern art achieved it’s autonomous

domain and the moment in which esthetic ideas emerged victorious. Later

Velben writes about the flamboyant consumer class and in all its wealth and

leisure in The theory of the leisure class. Thus signifying the distinction between

High and low citizens. Soon after Simmel’s two classic works were published

(Die Großstädte und das Geistesleben) and then on fashion, making up for the

later appearance off the modern city. The state of mind at the time was one that

citizens of the metropolis must stand together (same) while at the same time

being individuals (different), the trend at the time was one in which the middle

modernism and post-modernism became our worry for a postponed modernism.

High and low art, modern and traditional, global/local, Western/Chinese, these

dualisms can only be established if we trace back their corresponding

symbolism inside the big narrations. This is why we often miss those vivacious,

ephemeral “road-side sceneries”. These “road-side” sceneries are actually OVA,

or just another type of simulacra, reciprocal to an anonymous/unified/algorithmic/

multiplied database that was not yet recorded and identified. If we already got

familiar with the modernist road of “already happened” for the first time, and we

quietly take the hint, then the clever way to do it would be to study the change of

vision and association into social and spatial processes, a study concerning the

advancement of the life politics reproduction, splitting apart the iconographic

studies that greatly influenced us.

參考文獻

東浩紀. (2012). 動物化的後現代：御宅族如何影響日本社會. 台北: 大.

東浩紀. (2015). 遊戲性寫實主義的誕生：動物化的後現代2. 台北: 唐山.

Benjamin, W., & Tiedemann, R. (1999). The arcades project. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press.

Bourdieu, P. (1986). Distinction : a social critique of the judgement of taste. London: Routledge &

Kegan Paul.

Bourdieu, P. (1996). The rules of art : genesis and structure of the literary field. Cambridge: Polity

Press.

Clark, T. J. (1986). The painting of modern life : Paris in the art of Manet and his followers.

Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

Debord, G. (1994). The society of the spectacle. New York: Zone Books.

Hall, S., Gieben, B., & University, O. (1992). Formations of modernity. Oxford: Polity in

association with Open University.

Hall, S., & Jefferson, T. (Eds.). (1975). Resistance through rituals : youth subcultures in post-war

Britain. London: Hutchinson.

Hall, S., & Open, U. (1997). Representation : cultural representations and signifying practices.

Milton Keynes: Sage Publications in association with The Open University.

Hardt, M., & Antonio Negri, A. (2000). Empire. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Harvey, D. (2003). Paris, capital of modernity. New York: Routledge.

Hauser, A. (2015). 藝術社會史 (黃燎宇, Trans.): 北京：商務印書館.

Hebdige, D. (1979). Subculture, the meaning of style. London: Methuen.

Latour, B. (1993). We have never been modern. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Karl Marx, K. (1967). Capital Volume 3. New York.

Qiu, J. L. (2009). Working-Class Network Society: Communication Technology and the

Information Have-Less in Urban China.ess: The MIT Press.

Qiu, J. L. (2013). 信息時代的世界工廠. 南寧: 廣西師範大學.

Shirky, C. (2105). 鄉民都來了：網衖群眾的組織力量. 台北: 貓頭鷹.

class copied the clothing worn by the upper class. These topics need no

theoretical discourse to be understood by todays Chinese audience.

At the end of the 19th century in a mere fifty year period, city, spectacle, capital,

class, ideology, and modernism are on display everywhere and have become a

part of everything we are accustomed to. Before Debord’s “The society of the

spectacle” we had long been living in “social relationships that were mediated

by images" .

That being said between 1860 and 1960 the universality of the social reality

forced modernist theorists to look to the intense unfolding of the city with hopes

of catching a glimpse of the comprehensive force of society, capital, and

technology. Behind such a display is the way in which class, ideology, spectacle,

and modernity construct a specific form of display. By unveiling the veil of

display and grabbing hold of the assassin does reality present itself. As Karl Marx

once said “the architect raises his structure in imagination before he erects it in

reality”. The success of a time period is due to its formation not to its existence.

From a dialectical standpoint as long as we are able to deal with representation

conditions ─ technology and social conditions ─ in it’s specific moment in, then

the formation of display can be found.

Not only have the reports by the media recorded resistance but they have done

so in a way it may deemed manful but they ruling structure. Thus subculture has

been transformed into an interesting spectacle a “folk demon” which claims

allegiance to substandard groups functioning as part of a factual myth(Hall &

Open, 1997, pp. 13-74). Put plain the term “resistance” is a keyword at

Birmingham's Centre for Contemporary Culture Studies, the reason being

without resistance there would be no challenge to the so called “English-ness”

advocated by Margaret Hilda Thatcher and the conservatives of her day. In the

excellent words of Hebdige “all symbols are a form of resistance, even the

female Punk who tattoos a nazi swastika on her hand to attract attention shares

this trait”. In the book “Resistance Through Rituals：Youth Subcultures in Post-

War Britain” culture is described as that which social groups who have

developed a unique form of expression in which society then materializes these

forms of expression. That being said if we enter at that point then we will find

that the means in which every subculture handles social material is

different(Hebdige, 1979).

Through ritual the subject (expressed form of experience) is capable of

corresponding to the grand-narrative (symbol and meaning) all we have to do is

make the connection (de-code) and find the evidence of raw social material. In

the realm of material and expressed forms the “difference in handling” is clearly

an issue of “display” theres nothing “inevitable” here, instead is an arbitrary

interpretation thats packed with ideology. For instance was it cultural study which

gave rise to Punk? or was it the other way around? Cultural rituals of Ancient and

contemporary alike are all extremely strictly but all of them can be done away

with, even if we catch the assassin it doesn't prove anything. Further more the

grand-narrative addressed here (symbol and meaning) has its empirical backing

and original source, theres also social raw material which is yet to be organized

and resides between the activists and meaning itself. But in fact there is no

(databases) and become the other simulation. In turn calling attention to

their “realm”.

Display (limitless creation) is the smart’s sole purpose of creation, this is

the main hindrance in discovering the corresponding relation of ritual

resistance. Our familiarity of Punk is based of our access to a form of

modernity which has already taken shape, a circumstance which has

already taken place in the west as part of the structural narrative. Equally

important is the production of theory and discussion for they present a

point of structural reference a justification of whether or not one has “been

modern”.

Due to the Smart’s lack in capital and technical ability, the form which they

created succumbed to repetition and eventually became stagnant. In

becoming a symbol and an efficient means of achieving capital the smarts

fame thus subsided after the period between 2012-2014,( we believe

tuhao and diaosi are destined for the same fate). Capital tends to support

formal liberation of social constraints as long as it does not hinder the

overall schema if labor control. Because it can be used as a unique niche

in the marketplace. In reality it doesn't matter what hairstyle the smarts

have, as long as they can make it to work tomorrow theres nothing wrong

with them staying up all night looking for new hairstyles and chatting while

at them same time filling the pockets of electricity and internet providers.

4，Formal subsumption

The process in which the smart “displays” themselves through imagery is

a perfect example of Capitalism’s “formal subsumption” In the beginning

the smart used images which had gone viral whether they be, smarts

between cars, returning home during the spring festival, public

assemblies, internet cafes, lists of fames, and the emphasis of hair and

non-mengness. The second stage achieved by smarts was achieved by

opening hair accessories on Tao Bao, games such as QQ dance off, Q-

zone visual and textual analysis, as well as foregrounds and apps giving

them the ability to become net sensations. The battles of the “noble family”

as they refer to themselves are coupled with consumption, the legend of

“the realm” requires large investment. But eventually the smarts become

less of a big deal as mainstream culture infringes on the trend to make a

buck.

Miao ying a young Chinese net artist, produced a work titled “When smart

meets HKT meets bili-bili” it is a great example of the termination of the

smart. She used two videos the one placed in the upper hand corner is of

Dizzy wright’s official music video “fashion” taken from youtube. The other

a barrage of commentary streaming across the screen is from the bilibili

internet addiction” which attracted a wave of discussion. Within days the

film was viewed over 1,000,000 times, the content was the battle over

operative rights of World of warcraft between Jiucheng and Netease. In

turn addressing the addiction with the case of “Yang yongxin’s

electroconvulsive therapy” The film critiques the inner workings of the

game as well as the competition between the two companies. Making

sarcastic remarks regarding the cultural administration and the media at

the as well as hot topics such as fishing was and hangzhou 70mph case.

The analysis provided by Wang hongzhe is one of great value as he

dresses the issue of surfing the web /internet addiction and the cyber/

reality space that is thus created. Also calling attention to youth identity,

and vicissitudes of social anxiety.

When the internet first came about cyberspace was thought of as another

world. One in which a person could live and function autonomously, but in

fact that is not the case. Cyber space is not an alternate space nor is it

spaceless rather, its juxtaposed to the vein of reality itself. The success of

meetup.com shows that people still have the need to meet face to face,

first meeting in cyberspace with the intention of interacting in the real

world. The two games Pokemon Go and Ingress make use of GPS and

AR technology and in turn made the urban/rural difference all the more

obvious. In the influential writings of Clay Shirky it is clear that a new

social capital is capable of being established, but it is ultimately connected

to the needs of reality. The net can fulfill specific needs, as well as

addiction, it can also work as a platform for people to meet others of

common interest as it can be used for extremist groups (such as anorexics

or isis).

Clays book shares a startling resemblance to the film War on internet

addiction, in the unification of the netizens a phenomena which can also

explain the smarts. The smart are born out of the are in which the city

meets the countryside, as a result the internet has provided a more stern

sense of recognition making up for what was lost in the process of

urbanization. Thus making it possible for the urban rural fringe to continue

its contradictory unity existence.

It used to be hard to get people to assemble and easy for existing

groups to fall apart.  Now assembling latent groups is simple, and the

groups, once assemble, can be quite robust in the face of indifference

or even direct opposition from the larger society.”(Shirky, 2105, p. 187)

In the past year I have been like everyone else who loves this game

I’ve squeezed onto the bus to go to work

I’ve bought all types of food products

No matter if they contained chemical I could pronounce or not

I’ve never complained about my measly pay check

corresponding connection, so is there really a need to decipher the encrypted

code? When we realize the smart of China aren't able to laugh at the Queen of

England like The Sex pistols, what are we to do?

Grasping two points of view regarding the “smart”（shamate）

On November 5th 2013 a Chinese user with over 1,720,000 fans added three

photos to their profile on Sina which depicted a young man from behind with

“poofy” hair. He wrote happily “I caught a live smart” then adding “his hair

resembles that of some sort of virus” later it went viral in many different forms,

with ridiculing comments and critiques. An image posted on the news site “ifeng”

titled “the 90’s generation of the workshop” depicts a group of boys and girls at

some enterprises workshop in Zhuhai, canton. With their hair strange, attire over

the top, and obscure temperament, at an age of commotion they work a tedious

monotonous job. In the image’s explanation tit states they are a group of migrant

workers that hail from the countryside or suburban areas who were born in the

90’s. The media referred to them as the generation without a hometown, The

third component which exists separate to China’s unique urban/rural structure.

The most prominent opinion of the field is that of Sun liping’s (孙立平)“Fractured

trilogy” in which the dualistic nature of China’s rural/urban make-up is cramped

together causing the permeation of the village into the city and vise versa, thus

forming a new structure called the “ternary structure”. On the one hand you have

the real urban society and on the other you have the rural one, where they meet

stuck in the middle is that of the migrant workers. As particular as the Chinese

system is Sun liping's stance is one that is shared with most of the Chicago

School of Sociology. That is through the process of urbanization the city from a

mixed grain like structure resembling that of a mosaic with each area not easily

Nor have I when you took your tax from it

Living in a connected terrace still I’ve lost my balance

This past year, together with those that love this game

I’ve shed tears due to floods and earthquakes

Cheered for manned spacecraft and the olympic games

Our utmost fear is to fall behind anyone whatever the aspect may be

However this past year, because of you all

We've lost the chance to compete against other nations,

（taken from the “War on internet addiction”）

smart to modernity

To display implies that someone has an intention, systematically organizing data

and publishing it in the public domain, as a mechanism or as an agent of a

system, implementing an objective of public dissemination, communication, of

ideological persuasion. By controlling the actions of medias well known to both

communist and capitalist world, but also being a core confrontation of cultural

hegemony. The reason why the process of collective visual creation is named

“social display” in this paper, it’s really not because there are some people

gathering things and images and display them to the public, but it takes shape

as the product of mutual assignments within the group and self-differentiating,

self-propagating. In the online community, social display has an intimate support

from the community, as the separation between us and the adversary on “post

bar”, sharing and liking on Facebook or Tweeter, the craziness on forums, the

mobilization of the “family” etc. In the real space, social display has the visual

features of uneven geography.

Perhaps the social display is a function of a type of domination mentality (often

displayed as latent, negating, hidden), which at times can break this cognitive

sequence and resist the negativity, a force that can reveal. The “SMART-ed”

style is the typical mentality of the Middle Class that negates itself, the action of

obstructing oneself to take a position. The SMART style is actually breaking a

cognitive sequence, it cancels (by mistaking or just not knowing) the relativeness

of the symbolical world that the cognitive sequence should correspond to, thus

being produced from itself. When an empire lacks territories to conquer, when

the body becomes the last boundary, the SMART road actually is the ingenious

one. SMART renders the analysis of the Chicago sociologist pointless, it’s a way

to make the strongest – beyond the resistance through ritual– tradition of cultural

research lose its object of debate. They went all the way around to the back door

of the ability of being identified. It’s a pity we spent so long time identifying them,

instead of continuing their work.

As a “social expression”, to merely put the aesthetics of “smart” in front of the

seat of political trial and analyze it thoroughly is not enough. The developing

countries are following right behind on the modernist road that “already

happened” for the first time in the West, their cooperation within disputes like

Commitee estimates that within five years, state-owned entreprises will have 20 million

posts less while 120 million villagers swell the ranks of the (potential) urban workforce,

prediction which the market liberalization brought about by the bankruptcy of the state-

owned entreprise has only served to support. Currently half of China’s 140 billion

population are city dwellers, and the number is expected to go up by another three and a

half million, seventy percent of which hail from rural areas. The highly individualized free

market under a collective state and the counterbalance between monopolistic

concentration of resources and scattered competition that characterize China’s unique

economic system make it possible to accumulate vast amounts of wealth and enhance the

economy’s performance within a short period. This is class-dictated monopoly rent,

monopolistic competition between geographical units. If this is pain, it is, alas, likely to last.

Due to the nature of the urban and rural production of space, the urban-rural fringe exist in

the contradictory unity with competition.

2， Middle Class ideology

Normally, terms like bling culture and shamate are coined by young, city slicker

intellectuals (diao si). Opponents of Li Yi net-forum netizens, under the onslaught of

virulent arguments, gradually adopted the term diaosi as denomination. The diaosi mocks

over-the-top hairstyles, uses cheap knock-off phones and plays unconvincingly at being

the offspring of blue-collar parents. The shamate(s) also bands together, flourishing on the

Internet. This is the story of the uncool Chinese Queer.

One could also, having meditated on the path towards modernity, speculate that these

three practically contemporary “types” (bling culture, shamate and diaosi), were defined by

the ideology of the absent, decent Middle Class, (Bourdieu, 1968) and they are manifested

by this same ideology. As the backbone of modernism and the children of China’s reform

period, the Middle Class is obligated to assert the power of its ideology by naysaying the

Other, and in double negatives. They deny the social capital of the labourer’s descendants

and the taste of the nouveau riche, and the ones who mete out this disdain are their

disappointing progeny, the diaosi. The brotherhoods (I’m sorry, that’s a terrible word) of art

history are exclusively modern, their members drawn together by their disregard for

bourgeois art and social art alike and left with no alternative but to temporarily deny the

meaning and form of art, crying only art for art. (Bourdieu, 1996) The Middle Class is a

meaningless symbol, a ruler without scales, its identity defined solely by the weight-shifting

of its two counterparts.

Therefore, ‘Smart’ could be defined as, an identity of the youth stratum from

urban fringe culture, whom are socially dominated while being its own cultural

dominators; a yet modernized aesthetic struggles to be identified as ‘modern’; a

network-based and sub-cultural struggle, which reflects in the production of

space. In such arena of meanings legitimation, it could be refer to as, the so-

called ‘entangling practice’ by Bruno Latour (Latour, 1993).

3， Narrative consumption vs database consumption

‘Smart’ has an appearance as the realization of manga (usually associated

with the so-called cos-play fashion). In order to discern such materialization

situation could be discerned from the Foxconn event, which happens prercisely on the up-rising

manual laborers from technological industry assembly line, new Working Class who are

informationalised. (Qiu, 2009, 2013).

The form of bio-political production is a characteristic of the Network Society. If by

selling a story bio-power is a means of imagining a narrative in which oneself is

accepted by the mainstream culture than; that is thereby Michel Foucault’s result of

discipline. Like the love story in Tiny times which depicts an up and coming

Middle Class love story, or the harmonious interaction between classes in Ode to

joy. Bio politics during the digital native era of net culture is the consumption of

data bases, even in the inter woven product of self consumption, it set up for the

assembly of consumption.

The Smart make use of attire they can afford, English Punk, Japanese

visual kei, Korean dance teams, Working Class suits hoodlums and internet

sensations are all part of the database which is used to create. Creating

stories which embody their characteristics ( nobility,freedom,madness) are

all part of the “legend of the noble family”. And therefore can be seen as

the first degree of consumption. Apart from that they have also taken part

in the consumption of assembly settings on the internet( hairstyles found

in pop culture, clothing, makeup, dances, textual formats, backgrounds,

handwriting,web gifs etc.) They choose to gather in non-narrative settings

a world of anonymousness/statistics/and game.

Smart is not shanghai because they are not copying, they have Punk hair

but aren't anarchists or animal rights activists, they do their make up like

the visual kei but can’t sing, they put on makeup like the Korean groups

but can’t dance. They are what Hiroki Azuma calls the “other simulation”

pointing towards other databases. All of the insults towards “smart” (and

the tuhao as well) a justified upon the basis of originality (middle-class

ideology) as if the “second” creation is a copy and a lowly one at that.

Furthermore, the criteria for critiquing a copy on the internet isn’t based on

whether it resembles the original but it’s role is that of the database. It is

the distance between a copy and the database rather than the copy and

original that become the setting and the specific constituents of quality.

Simulacra is guaranteed by relating the database. If there weren't any

visual databases, make-up, dark and shiny, ambiguous societal elements,

then the final result would lack “display”. The database would therefore

lack its identity for which a specific group could reference. Note that the

database is not one of modernity in it that it lacks a single original

attribute, it is instead made up of the continuous accumulation and

production of anonymous statistics texts and algorithms all of which exist

in the net. Free from ones existing surroundings the smart style is not one

which is copied and pasted or one that is even original, rather the smart

creatively utilizes that which they have found in databases which they then

add to the main text. The appearances of the “smart” are their own

creations and explanations, they add their sources of reference

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