Distribution of ‘relationships’ postings

seem to accord with the anti- mainstream (feizhuliu)⁸ aesthetic of youth culture.

‘Mirror selfies’, i.e. those taken through a mirror, come across as another popular selfie genre. The mirror selfie is convenient to take, but also allows a wider view which helps to unfold some other details, for example dresses or shoes (Fig. 3.9). It may be used to show some part of the body to best advantage (Fig.  3.10), or even the very digi-tal device with which the selfie was taken. As discussed in Chapter 2, Fig. 3.7 A typical range of selfies uploaded by young women to their social media profiles

Fig. 3.8 ‘Hair selfies’ by young men

Fig. 3.9 A typical ‘mirror selfie’ illustrating one’s dress or shoes

Fig. 3.10 A typical ‘mirror selfie’ helping to show part of the body to best advantage

iPhones are regarded as symbols of higher socio-economic status among low income people such as rural migrants, thus revealing the ownership of an iPhone is regarded as a plus on a selfie. Of all the mir-ror selfies posted by rural migrants, the majority (around 90 per cent) were taken by iPhones. However, such figures do not match with the relative low ownership of iPhones among rural migrants, as shown in Chapter  2. There are thus two possibilities:  that non- iPhone users choose not to take mirror selfies, or that the people featured on their selfies may not necessarily own the iPhone. For example, the young fac-tory worker Huatian took a mirror selfie using the iPhone of one of his friends (Fig. 3.11) and posted it on Qzone. On this selfie he was wearing a fake Adidas T- shirt and Doc Martins, acquired at the local night mar-ket. As he said, ‘I think you just want to show the best of you on a selfie’.

Comments on this selfie, as he expected, focused on the nice material world shown in the photograph; one of the comments read, ‘Life is not too bad . . . Lucky you!’

Fig. 3.11 A ‘mirror selfie’ taken by a young factory worker to portray himself as somebody enjoying a good life

However, not all the selfies seek to portray glamorous aspects of oneself. ‘Pyjama selfies’, which people take in their bedrooms in their most casual look, are examples of a different trend. As the text on Fig. 3.12 reads ‘Can’t fall asleep, too tired’, these ‘pyjama selfies’ were usually posted at the end of the day before people went to bed, or some-times when they could not get to sleep. Even though most rural migrants do not have their own private space, given the limited living accommo-dation, a ‘pyjama selfie’ seems to be the first time people intentionally invite the public to view some of the most private moments of their lives.

The results are regarded with some scepticism. ‘I think she is fak-ing it; even though it looks like no make- up, I bet she photoshopped it to make sure her skin looked perfect . . . It is actually a carefully posed selfie to show how cute she is . . . look at the duck face and the collarbone,’

commented a young female participant, who did not know the subject of Fig. 3.14. On the other hand, in a separate interview, the subject of Fig. 3.13 herself remarked, ‘I just feel like taking a selfie, no specific pur-pose’. With or without any specific purpose, the very action of posting a pyjama selfie is always a deliberate act by the person posting.

A pyjama selfie usually attracts more ‘likes’ or comments, partially because it looks different from people’s usual daytime appearance and

Fig. 3.12 A ‘pyjama selfie’ of a young man

helps the senders to get closer to their online contacts. As the male fac-tory worker featured in Fig. 3.12 observed, for women a ‘pyjama selfie’

may mean removing physical make- up, but for men it can be the moment when they finally take off the ‘mask’ of social expectation of being a man:

‘I let you see the real me which you can never see during the daytime.

At work I won’t show a weak part of me as a man.’ Even though people may interpret pyjama selfies in different ways, to unfold a private and different aspect of oneself voluntarily is usually regarded as a friendly gesture on social media, where self- exposure can lead to mutual trust.

In this sense a pyjama selfie is an example of how a selfie is a skilful self- representation that can connect to, and communicate with, others.⁹ In terms of the awareness of relationships, the ‘group selfie’ takes a step further, directly portraying the closeness of the relationship (as men-tioned in the section on ‘relationships’ postings above). Compared to other kinds of group photographs, group selfies require physical prox-imity in order to include a group of people in a photo frame, which in a way also legitimises more intimate and informal body contact. Such body language, triggered by group selfies, enhances the sense of con-nectedness, which is further reinforced when group selfies are posted on social media.

Fig. 3.13 A ‘pyjama selfie’ of a young woman

In retrospect, self- love or narcissism is rarely the only moti-vation behind selfies.¹⁰ In many cases, rather than recording them-selves, people are in fact recording their social network via selfies.

For many, a selfie is not ‘complete’ until it has been uploaded to social media and viewed by others. Thus it makes little sense to single out any individual selfie without acknowledging the context of the anti-cipated audience on social media. A selfie is actually a new form of social interaction facilitated by social media; it reflects how people see themselves in a network. As shown on Chart 3.2, so far the genre of ‘selfies’ is still the exclusive preserve of young people among rural migrants. However, it is highly likely that the situation will change in the near future, given the evidently increasing popularity of smart-phones among older people and the increasing social acceptance of selfies in China – especially now China’s President Xi has also started to post selfies.¹¹

3 ‘Trivia’

The genre of ‘trivia’ refers to photographs of insignificant housework or household items (Fig. 3.14). It usually takes place when people feel bored, and it seems that the very action of taking a photo and posting it on social media is the less tedious activity that enlivens the daily routine.

As Chart 3.3 shows, in ‘trivia’ gender and age play important roles.

For some middle- aged women trivia made up most of their original visual postings on social media. Men are less keen on posting trivia.

Older people rarely posted trivia as they tended to view social media postings as significant personal statements, whereas many younger

Fig. 3.14 Typical trivia postings

people have no problem in posting daily trivia on social media as they see it as a personal diary.

4 ‘Compulsorily shared’

The reason this genre has been labelled ‘compulsorily shared’ is summed up by one participant’s response to the post’s sharing request:  ‘you feel you have to share it, otherwise you would worry that there will be something wrong.’ The majority of ‘compulsorily shared’ posts are deeply related to beliefs in the efficacy of the images of deities (Fig. 3.15), lucky animals (Fig. 3.16) or even strange beings (yishou) (Fig. 3.17), all of which derive from Chinese folk religion. In some cases the texts accompanying these images make the compul-sion to share even stronger; the text on Fig. 3.17 reads ‘If you don’t share it, your parents will have a disaster in 7 days’.

Young