Hello everyone, I am Anthony. Welcome to my channel. Today's video, let's talk about a kind of Internet subculture, it's a diaper narrative.

I believe everyone still remembers, in our video on December 21st, mentioned general studies, it is becoming increasingly popular among young people in China.

General academic requirements, learn to accept and get used to your own ordinariness, eliminate competition and comparison, psychological pressure on individuals.

But we said, ordinary learning attempts to eliminate one's pursuit of transcendence, in exchange for some kind of false reconciliation of the soul.

However, general studies itself, still limited by the logical framework of success studies, it is still the default, the legitimacy of the secular evaluation system is premised on.

Therefore, this kind of peace of mind is fragile and false.

True reconciliation, it is not about giving up the pursuit of universality and transcendence, but to realize, transcendence advocated by mainstream society, maybe it's just a false transcendence.

Therefore, we must pursue true spiritual liberation, it means that we need to touch upon social reality, to criticize and deconstruct those false excellences, finally, a truly universal evaluation system will be established.

At this point, the same applies to many Chinese people's mental phenomena, for example, the Diaosi culture that has been popular in Chinese society for a long time.

If ordinary learning is achieved by emphasizing one's own ordinariness, to relieve the pressure brought by success studies, then the diaosi culture, through more intense self-deprecation, self-mockery, to mock and resist mainstream values.

Therefore, it has a more far-reaching impact than ordinary studies.

certainly, there is a lot to talk about on this topic, today's video, let’s first briefly talk about the evolution of Diaosi culture.

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Let's get back to our topic today.

First of all, let’s talk about Diaosi culture, refers to such an online subculture: individuals use negative, derogatory, even insulting names, as a symbol of self-referentiality and self-naming.

With these symbols, people established, a subculture space that is separate from mainstream culture, and through constant self-deprecation on the Internet, to achieve catharsis and carnival.

Diaosi culture can be traced back to 2011, Baidu Tieba's Li Yi Bar.

In the online war of words at that time, other netizens coined the term “diaosi”, this insulting name, come and attack Li Yi's members.

But the members of Li Yi Bar, but he gladly accepted it, and call myself a diaosi.

Not only that, they also created or summarized a series of, highly related Internet slang, for example, "fat and round" and "short, ugly and poor", "Tall, rich and handsome" and "goddess" etc.

In the symbolic system represented by Diaosi culture, the whole society is exaggeratedly divided into, two groups that are clearly divided into two opposite groups.

Economic class, physical characteristics, closely integrated, the powerful class is beautiful and rich, the disadvantaged class are short, poor and ugly.

Because this symbol system is simple and crude, but it's very empty, on the contrary, it can arouse, Chinese netizens generally have, relative deprivation and weakness.

More and more netizens call themselves "diaosi", in this weird self-mockery, and grassroots black humor, Diaosi culture quickly became popular, even became, an underlying logic of various online subcultures in China.

Judging from the various popular online memes in recent years, we can observe a common pattern: the individual, in a self-deprecating, self-surrendering, mental failure method to express yourself, powerlessness and dilemma in social structures, gaining a brief emotional catharsis and identity recognition at the same time.

For example, in recent years, the test-takers and workers, rats, cows, horses, NPCs, etc.

NPC originally refers to the, game characters that are not controlled by the player, these characters are different players all day long, saying the same words, doing the same action, serve the game plot and players as a supporting role.

Later it was extended to mean worthless and insignificant, people whose lives are monotonous.

For example, some netizens said, my daily life is boring, it's all in the process, but like an NPC, you must be on call at any time.

Everyone started to question the NPC, after being beaten, I understood the NPC, inevitably become an NPC in the end.

Similar to Diaosi culture, NPC culture uses game metaphors, expresses the individual's response to mechanization, programmatic and instrumental dissatisfaction.

Another popular internet term: "Test-taker", this reflects more on the students of China's famous universities, the structure and humor of the college entrance examination narrative after the reform and opening up.

The term "test-taker" originally referred to, good at getting high scores in China's exam-oriented education system, but people who lack social skills.

This is obvious, it is also an insulting and sarcastic name.

But more and more Chinese college students, call yourself this, joined this self-deprecating ritual.

In 2020, the Douban group "985 Waste Import Plan" was established.

Most of the team members graduated from famous Chinese universities, but they all call themselves trash, test-takers.

"Waste" is a homophone of "five".

If the test taker, expresses the deconstruction and ridicule of the college entrance examination narrative, then the "small town test-taker", then attached, hidden dissatisfaction with rural-urban inequality, and my efforts to pass the college entrance examination, getting rid of the frustration of being a small town person.

for, many students come from small towns or rural areas, the college entrance examination is often seen as the only way to change one's destiny.

However, this path was adopted in the early days of reform and opening up, might have brought some fair chances, however, at the moment, many people feel, even if I stand out in the college entrance examination, out of town, still aware of family background and urban-rural gaps, impact on personal growth.

As Anne LaRue, a sociology professor in the United States, in "Unequal Childhoods":

The American middle class, working class and poor families, different ways of raising children.

Middle-class families adopt collaborative education, it manifests itself in the daily lives of family members, use language extensively for reasoning and conversation.

This not only greatly improves children's vocabulary, it also helps children become familiar with, how to deal with adults.

As a result, children are more likely to, put yourself on an equal footing with adults, and often judge the adults around them.

This ability, easier to gain recognition from mainstream American society, and become a popular cultural capital.

Working class families or poor families, it is easier to adopt a natural growth strategy.

Within these families, there are usually no long discussions, consultations, or dialogues.

The words are relatively short and simple, language is just a, practical skills for everyday life, rather than cultivating reasoning and abstract thinking.

Therefore, children from working class families, more likely to have a relatively relaxed and leisurely childhood.

Although, the social environments in the United States and China are very different, for example, middle-class families in China, there is no emphasis on dialogue and reasoning, workers and poor families, children do not have a leisurely and relaxed childhood, but the disadvantaged groups, a state of being excluded by mainstream rules and order, are interlinked.

for example, children from poor families in the United States, when you grow up, you will feel a sense of embarrassment, feeling that you are not good at negotiating and communicating with others, and the ability to express one's ideas clearly.

This is different from many students who call themselves small town test-takers, to the original family, and reflections on my own social phobia, sensitivity, and inferiority complex, is similar.

Due to the universality of this phenomenon, the joke about the test-taker quickly became popular, including a large number of college students from non-famous universities, also started using "QuestionMaster", as one's own identity.

If we talk about the joke of the test-taker, it reflects the sense of powerlessness towards the involution of the education system, so the two words "working people" and "cows and horses", it mainly refers to workplace oppression.

The original meaning of "working" refers to physical labor, hard work, the knowledge and skills that white-collar workers engage in, office work, there is a sharp contrast.

There is a deliberate degradation and deconstruction here.

In China, many companies and bosses will use various methods, to emphasize the beauty of the work itself, and sacred meaning, emphasize the professionalism, professionalism and importance of the work content, and use this to require employees to have elite consciousness, ownership, you need to have a sense of mission and belonging to the company.

At the same time, those employees who do not agree with this culture, defined as not striving for progress, lack of vision and fighting spirit.

The "working people" stalk is, completely stripped of these packaging and attached halos, make your white-collar job, equated with repetitive and boring hard work, to satirize the mechanical, meaningless and exploitative nature of labor.

And call themselves "cow horses", it is a profound self-mockery, that is to say, it implies that one is being objectified in the workplace, alienation and Dehumanization, seen only as a tool to get the job done.

Another more abstract, even more insulting is calling yourself "rat".

Some netizens compared themselves to mice, can only live in a dark corner, my parents are rat dad and rat mom.

Mouse Literature, usually starts with the sentence "Mouse, I am", expressing the state of being destroyed by life.

for example, a netizen said, I worked hard and got into a second-tier university, but relatives still look down on Shushu.

Some netizens also said, I was exploited by my boss during my internship, can't find a good job, let the rat parents be disappointed.

With the test taker, this name is limited to the field of education, the name "rat" is more vague, the pain it refers to is also more widespread.

It can call itself, it can also be extended to people who are close to you, for example, parents.

therefore, "Rat" often implies the younger generation, the powerlessness and painful experiences shared with parents, it is also a kind of intergenerational pain, metaphor of identity dilemma and social oppression.

Through the above discussion, we can see, over the past decade, Diaosi literature is not dead, instead, it has been greatly developed and spread.

At first, the term "Diaosi", just an all-encompassing self-deprecating label, no distinction has been made between different areas of pain.

As China's social involution intensifies, Diaosi narrative in the workplace, education, original family and other fields, a more refined differentiation, demonstrated its great vitality.

Faced with these deconstructions and jokes, there are two main responses from the mainstream order.

First, direct suppression and preaching, the second is to appease, beautify and incorporate, for example, People's Daily Online: "Small town test-takers are also extraordinary", then he said:

“Small town test-taker” is definitely not a self-deprecating term! It is more like a belief of most young people, an affirmation of "knowledge changes destiny", it is today's society, every "ordinary person" who desires to change his fate, synonyms for.

Everyone who pursues their dreams should be encouraged, rather than being ridiculed.

Not all stars like to hang in the night sky, not all rivers flow to the sea.

The word "success", in the 21st century, China has never been "defined".

This official rhetoric, on the surface, it affirms the self-improvement spirit of the individual, but in fact, it is a rather false and cold positivity.

Through sentimental and poetic language, the official reality of the individual, packaged as a romanticized struggle story, create an illusion of warmth, without touching at all, the root causes of these difficulties and social contradictions.

Another example is this article from Beijing Youth Daily, "Behind the self-deprecation of workers lies tenacity and struggle", also said:

It’s a good thing for young people to complain about their workplace, realize that we are all workers, helps eliminate professional contempt chain, don't look down on anyone.

This shows that professional prejudice is slowly disappearing.

This is complete nonsense.

The official hopes, the forces of resistance and criticism, transformed into an entertainment, even positive energy.

However, fundamentally, Diaosi Narrative, indeed, I do not have insight, and the ability to deconstruct official discourse.

after all, a person has admitted that he is a loser, acquiescing to the authority of the secular system, it will be more difficult for him to have strength and confidence, to deconstruct those things that permeate education, ideology in the media and policy.

So we say, this self-deprecating carnival, although there is some resistance, but this resistance should not be overestimated.

It just stops at some kind of emotional catharsis.

Therefore, it is easy to be, the mainstream order is incorporated, utilized and transformed, become a harmless existence that does not touch the structure.

We will continue to discuss this topic in the next episode.

That’s all for today’s video.

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