Bourgeois Chic - An Emerging Class and Its Lifestyle Preferences: An Emerging Class and Its Lifestyle Preferences

Author: Bao Xiaoguang
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2002-02-01
Features: The book "Xiaozi Mood" presents the full connotation of "xiaozi mood" from five aspects. First: Do you understand your own class? This is like a wide-angle lens, helping people discover the "xiaozi" in various strata of Chinese society today. Second: historical dust, showcasing the old-day mood of Xiaozi. This is like a long-exposure shot, introducing the history of Xiaozi. It lets readers understand that the revival of Xiaozi mood began with nostalgia for the past. By brushing away the dust of history, in the memory of life in the 1930s, the emotions of elegance, loneliness, melancholy, and melancholy finally ignited the today's Xiaozi mood. Third: Today's Xiaozi legend. This is like a close-up shot, showing the life of today's Xiaozi. The network in the city, cafes, bars—all of this constitutes the mood of today's Xiaozi life. They are creating their own sense of sadness, comfort, loss, and loneliness here, showing and playing with the self in a modern or postmodern way, which is an important way of survival for today's Xiaozi. Fourth: The lifestyle taste of Xiaozi. This is like several split shots, showing the lifestyle taste of Xiaozi. Xiaozi mood is not an empty and abstract thing. Although it is higher than the reality principle, it still has objectified ways and means in the field of real life. "Xiaozi" people will make every aspect of their life full of flavor and charm, even their bodies themselves can become material for romantic mood. Xiaozi mood is often reflected in travel, clothing, home decoration, and music. Fifth: The mentality and mood of Xiaozi. This is like a close-up shot, showing the inner world of Xiaozi. This exquisite Xiaozi mood hides itself in a narcissistic mood, makes loneliness into a fashionable garment, and resists a mediocre life. In a state of loneliness, Xiaozi narcissism and appreciation, fully enjoy the taste of individual freedom. "Xiaozi Mood" is a fashionable book that comprehensively displays the "Xiaozi Mood" of contemporary urban society in China. Its delicate and ethereal words will undoubtedly deeply move those romantic souls.
Preface In today's China, living in metropolises like Beijing and Shanghai is still a dream for many people. To achieve this dream, people gather from all directions, rushing to Beijing and Shanghai, rushing to various metropolises. In the eyes of those who yearn for it, the city is not a "land flowing with milk and honey," but always means more opportunities, more money, and more happiness. In autumn in Beijing, the night is clear. From a high vantage point, you will see the splendid scenery of this flamboyant city and vague metaphors of the city imprinted on the sky, thus realizing the meaning of this gathering and pursuit.
First, you might see an unremarkable group, who often live in the dirty corners or marginal areas of the city, thus harmless to the city's magnificent facade and carefully groomed appearance. You can well imagine that by the next morning, they will emerge from their hiding places, making the city noisy and lively. You see or think of the "car drivers and vinegar sellers" in the city, of course including the working class who contribute to the city with simple skills and physical labor. Their main component is the surplus laborers from the rural areas of China. They are full of honest yearning and hope for the city, urgently wanting to integrate into this city. Therefore, they must wake up early and go to bed late, and work hard. All the hardships they experience are happiness, all the happiness is sweet, and all the sweetness will become a beautiful fairy tale in the hearts of their hometown people.
If you continue to gaze around, what may attract your attention is a different scene: The bright streets almost make you suspect that you are in the "streets of heaven." On the bustling streets, the figures of Cadillacs, Mercedes-Benzes, and other luxury cars occasionally flash by. The identities of the passengers are difficult to identify: the men with noble demeanor and the ladies with delicate and elegant demeanor all seem mysterious. Where are they going? To their countryside villas or holiday resorts in other provinces? Or to some five-star hotels or restaurants in the capital? No matter where, they will prove to be part of the new elite in contemporary China. Every frown, smile, gesture, and movement of theirs is significant. Huge capital may accelerate or slow down its turnover speed, and large transactions may be concluded or terminated because of it. Hundreds of thousands of people may be filled with anxiety or tears of joy because of it. The is their favorite destination.
If you are not satisfied, continue to observe, perhaps you will discover such a group: They are usually in impeccable suits, with neatly combed hair, and are dressed in luxurious brands. Their speech is quite elegant, and their behavior is meticulously crafted, with a hint of rococo style. Then you can roughly conclude that they are a group of high-level white-collar workers, who are now going to some kind of entertaining social activities in their small circles. Of course, you will also find the eccentric souls in urban life. You can almost not measure their taste and mood by how much money they have. But it is not necessary to deny that their taste and style are based on a certain economic foundation. Their eccentricity is intended to highlight a personality, and this higher level of prominence is a natural of a free mindset. The lower level may be a kind of artificial and pretentious behavior. Among these people, some indeed have a free and carefree personality, and their deliberate self-promotion may be a conscious or unconscious need to adhere to some concept. If not, then it might be a pseudo-individual freedomist, and their self-promotion is completely due to a pathetic inner need, which is caused by the shrinkage or loss of the self. Therefore, we cannot simply call this person hypocritical.
At this moment, when you turn your attention to them—the truly independent and free-spirited individuals—you will almost certainly receive the same attention in return. In this interaction, if there is a resonance and harmony of the soul, then it can be said with certainty that you are also of the same kind—"xiaozi."
In autumn in Beijing, the night is clear. From a high vantage point, you will see the splendid scenery of this flamboyant city and vague metaphors of the city imprinted on the sky, thus realizing the meaning of this gathering and pursuit. Gathering and pursuit are the tragedy and comedy that happen every moment in the metropolis, and the mechanism of the birth of urban civilization. What is the city? The city is like a grotesque and enormous prehistoric beast, like a mysterious black hole in the universe, it indiscriminately swallows everything that tries to get close to it, making you disappear in its warm and stimulating stomach fluid. Whether it is the mysterious aristocrats or the urban workers in hardship; whether it is high-level white-collar workers or the eccentric souls, all of them submit to this gathering and pursuit, and no one can escape the great magic of the modern city.
In the melting pot of the modern city, the most frightening thing is the loss and disappearance of the self. You may have a mansion and a luxury car, and you may hold a high position, but if you do not have a free personality and self at the same time, you will feel hollow. Your wealth and position will eventually be against you. However, if you cannot be assimilated by the city, you may also feel unlucky. You may be excluded from the operation of the urban order, and then all your love for the city will be impossible to realize, leaving only resentment. Fortunately, the various types of people mentioned above belong to the group accepted by the city. They operate effectively on the track of urban order and themselves constitute part of the urban culture. Their perception of the city is neither pure love nor pure hatred, but a feeling of both love and hatred—even though the proportion of this feeling may vary from person to person. Gathering and pursuit are the mark of urban vitality. Cities that can cause strong gathering and pursuit are often immigrant cities. In terms of economy and culture, Shanghai is the center of the south, and Beijing is the center of the north. They are full of vitality today because they have formed a huge attractive force of gathering and pursuit. On the buses and subways in Beijing, you may feel this more deeply, so they are the microcosm of this city. On the bus between Zhongguancun and Baishi Bridge, everyone on the bus is very young, with an average age of no more than forty. Except for those who wear clothes with obvious characteristics of people from other places, everyone is a Beijing person if they don't speak. But as soon as they start talking, you will find that about seventy-eight percent of them have a southern accent or a northern accent. The degree of gathering and pursuit in Beijing is roughly like this. In the soft stomach of the city, "xiaozi" have survived for a long time and have multiplied for a long time. As early as the 18th and 19th centuries, in Paris and London, in Vienna, and even in St. Petersburg, Western "xiaozi" had already been showing the self of the "xiaozi" class or class. And in the early and middle of the 20th century, Western "xiaozi" were a restless group. Their passion and impulses, their love and desires, their adventures and rebellions, their confusion and innovation, once fascinated countless people.
In China, "xiaozi" can only survive and thrive only in the civilized and soft stomach of the city. In the 1930s of Shanghai, in the 1960s of Hong Kong, during the Cultural Revolution in mainland China, in the 1980s and 1990s of reform and opening up, and in the early 21st century, the figure of "xiaozi" has successively emerged, performing tragedies and comedies, sadness, humor, or leisure that are not only theirs in the history of the Chinese people.
If the ten years of the Cultural Revolution was a severe blow to the history of Chinese "xiaozi," and "xiaozi" almost "died" in such a great disaster, then it can be said that the recent ten years are a form of "compensation" for Chinese "xiaozi." This compensation becomes extremely realistic in the following sense: The city of China has become healthier and more normal from frequent spasms and indigestion. The nutrition it accepts is diverse, and the digestion methods it provides are various, which not only nourishes China's rich and high-level white-collar workers, but also nurtures a new working class and urban poor in China, while also moistening China's "xiaozi."
Romance is an incurable disease for all "xiaozi," and today's "xiaozi" are also suffering from this disease. However, this disease no longer makes people think of it as a cross on the forehead of the Aurelians or a red A on the chest of Hester Prynne.
In autumn in Beijing, the night is clear. From a high vantage point, you will see the splendid scenery of this flamboyant city and vague metaphors of the city imprinted on the sky, thus realizing the meaning of this gathering and pursuit.
Some people say that the shaping law of the city population is no more than two rules: First, the pyramid rule. At the bottom of the pyramid are the helpless soil and the silent sandstone, which silently bear the entire weight of the pyramid. Above the soil and sandstone are the regular square stones, which are arranged from inside to outside, from bottom to top according to their lightness and beauty, forming the main body of the pyramid. Above that is the upper part of the pyramid, which is made of neat and smooth jade, and because it is less affected by the impact of flying sand and stones, it looks elegant and noble. Above that is the magnificent apex of the pyramid, which soars into the sky and is unreachable, only accompanied by the clear wind, the bright moon, and the white clouds. This is where dreams and myths are created. If you have the chance to stand on the apex of the pyramid and overlook your feet, you will discover the second rule, namely the Forbidden City rule. The core of the Forbidden City is naturally the imperial garden, and many concentric circles are formed around this core, with different pursuits in each circle. If you are outside these circles, of course, you will not receive the favor of the Forbidden City rule, which gradually progresses in layers, and you will still be a person who has not been accepted by the city. This induction is what I don't like, it is too heavy and oppressive, the city it describes lacks the concept and spirit of freedom, and such a city will not produce great gathering and pursuit force. Therefore, I prefer to compare today's metropolises to civilized monsters or mysterious black holes in the sky, which means a mysterious conjecture and temptation. Today's Chinese "xiaozi" survive in such a "mystery." "Xiaozi" cannot be separated from urban civilization, cannot be separated from the free spirit of the modern city, without these, xiaozi cannot survive.
Please don't look at this book as a work that tries to defend "xiaozi" or make it up. Today's "xiaozi" no longer needs anyone to worry about them like this, because they are living freely and comfortably, and their future tense will also be like this.
Also, don't get nervous looking for some "xiaozi." "Xiaozi" is both you and not you, both in your vicinity and not in your vicinity. It is just a spirit in the city, a cultural existence, a romantic sentiment. The city cannot be without it; without it, the city will be lifeless.
In autumn in Beijing, the night is clear. From a high vantage point, you will see the splendid scenery of this flamboyant city and vague metaphors of the city imprinted on the sky, thus realizing the meaning of this gathering and pursuit.
Chinese "xiaozi" have realized this, and thus they linger and savor the taste of this gathering and pursuit in the splendor and wonders of urban civilization, brewing a romantic atmosphere in their lives. This may be considered as a contribution of contemporary Chinese "xiaozi" to urban civilization.