About Face: Seeing New Beauty Codes

Abstract

When netizens lifted pictures of a hunky stranger from a photography community forum and reposted them across social networks including Tianya, a frenzy overtook China’s fashion-focused digital communities. The handsome man’s seemingly haphazard styling took the current mix-and-match trend to the next level. He had draped a long black down coat over a leather jacket and oversized jeans that he belted with multicolored fabric shreds. The look was topped off with mussed, longish hair and a dangling cigarette. “Too cool!” exclaimed young Chinese fashionistas. Other photographs of him wearing women’s clothing circulated online and, instead of drawing ridicule as might be expected, his gender flexibility only added to his fashion-forward credentials.

I think individuality is kind of sexy.

—Li Yuchun, pop star, born in 1984¹