Wikipedia

Shamate

Shamate[a] or SMART is a youth subculture and fashion movement originating from migrant workers (mingong) in 2000s South China.[1] It is characterized by eccentric makeup, hairstyles and clothing. At its peak, there were over 200,000 Shamate.[3][6][7]

Example of Shamate fashion

Fashion and influences

edit
Typical Shamate hairstyles

Shamate is a subculture marked by colorful and eccentric makeup, hairstyles and clothing. Hairstyles are often large, colorful and spiky. It takes inspiration from Visual Kei, Korean fashion, glam rock, goth, and punk.[1][3][4][5][8][9][7][10][11]

Le Monde diplomatique describes Shamate men as wearing "eye make-up, studded leathers, slashed jeans and tight T-shirts", and Shamate women as wearing "fishnets or knee-high socks with mini shorts, thick belts and skimpy tops".[1]

Socioeconomic background

edit

Many Shamate are second-generation migrant workers (mingong) in their teens or early twenties from rural towns and villages in China, who dropped out of school at a young age and went to large urban centers to look for jobs, particularly factory jobs in Guangdong.[1][2][3][4][5][6][11][8][10][7][9][12][13][14][15][16]

They are often described as being part of the "left-behind children", because many of their parents abandoned them at an early age to work in factories in urban areas.[1][2][3][7][8][10][15][16][17]

History

edit

Origins

edit

The Shamate subculture was founded in 2006 by then 11-year-old Luo Fuxing. Luo was a "left-behind child", and lived in Meizhou at the time. Luo was inspired by other underground movements, but found them too tame. Inspired by the Visual Kei subculture, Luo uploaded a selfie of himself with his hair dyed red and a sleeveless studded jacket to QQ. He named the new subculture "SMART", which he transliterated into Chinese as Shamate. The term quickly gained traction, creating a subculture that adopted the style.[1][18]

However, Foreign Policy and Sixth Tone claim the movement was founded in 1999 in Hong Kong by Mai Rox.[2][13]

See also

edit

Notes

edit
  1. ↑ simplified Chinese: 杀马特; traditional Chinese: 殺馬特; pinyin: Shāmǎtè. Transliteration of the English word smart.[1][2][3][4][5]

References

edit
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Dalléas, Frédéric (1 February 2022). "The 'left behind' of the Chinese miracle: When China's rural young found their style". Le Monde diplomatique. Translated by Miller, George. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Lu, Rachel (2 December 2013). "Vanity Fail". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Zhang, Henry; Chang, Luyao (1 June 2021). "Luo Fuxing: 'The Last of the Shamate'". Guernica. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
  4. 1 2 3 Zhai, Xingli; Liang, Yingxin (24 November 2020). "More than just a hairstyle: will the shamate kids ever grow up?". Jiemian News. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
  5. 1 2 3 Liu, Jue (1 March 2014). "Shamate Alecks". The World of Chinese. Vol. 4, no. 2, Crime. The Commercial Press. p. 72–74. ISSN 1673-7660. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
  6. 1 2 Wang, Lianzhang (26 June 2018). "'Father of "Shamate"' Looks Back at Now-Dead Subculture". Sixth Tone. Retrieved 5 February 2025.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Yuan, Christina; Escribano, Inma (16 July 2021). Petchprom, Chayapol (ed.). China's Most Misunderstood Subculture. VICE Asia (video) (in Chinese and English). Translated by Yuan, Christina; Escribano, Inma. Retrieved 26 January 2025.
  8. 1 2 3 Meng, Siyuan (24 December 2020). "Shunned, Shattered, Shamate: Telling the Story of China's Most Hated Subculture". Radii. Retrieved 5 February 2025.
  9. 1 2 Shaw, Tristan (5 February 2021). "'We Were Smart': China's controversial subculture tells its story". The China Project. Retrieved 5 February 2025.
  10. 1 2 3 Zhang, Phoebe (17 December 2017). "A Family Affair". The World of Chinese. No. 6, Cloud Country. The Commercial Press. p. 6. ISSN 1673-7660. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
  11. 1 2 A look at Chinese subcultures: Yabi and Shamate. China Tonight (video). ABC News. 31 March 2023. Retrieved 26 January 2025.
  12. ↑ Grogan, Bryan (7 May 2021). "Artist Ye Funa Talks Shamate and Making an Exhibition Of Her Life". Radii. Retrieved 5 February 2025.
  13. 1 2 Teng, Wei (28 July 2016). "How 'Shamate' Devolved From Urban to Underclass Fashion". Sixth Tone. Retrieved 5 February 2025.
  14. ↑ Wang, Veronica Jingyi (26 April 2021). "How China's White-Collar Workers Are Co-Opting Blue-Collar Punk". Sixth Tone. Retrieved 5 February 2025.
  15. 1 2 Li, Yifan; Linang, Jianhua; Feng, Yu (December 2019). Chen, Wenhui (ed.). We Were SMART 杀马特，我爱你 [Shamate, I Love You] (motion picture) (in Chinese). Translated by O'Donnell, Mary Ann.
  16. 1 2 Xu, Tina (26 January 2021). "Shamate Speaks". The World of Chinese. The Commercial Press. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
  17. ↑ Jubb, Nathan (28 July 2016). "Death of a Subculture: The Life of a Former 'Shamate'". Sixth Tone. Retrieved 5 February 2025.
  18. ↑ "How Chinese factory-workers express their views on life". The Economist. 12 August 2021. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 16 March 2025.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shamate&oldid=1345287352"