Xiaohongshu, a popular Chinese lifestyle platform, started a trend called ‘Ting’quan’ at the beginning of this year, which means ‘listen to advice’. Moreover, this hashtag refers to asking for opinions on how to change one’s appearance. Thus, it encourages users to post photos of themselves and invite others to provide feedback on how to improve their appearance.
“Let me help you become better”
As someone who has always enjoyed expressing myself through style, Tingquan immediately caught my attention. It’s like having a friend or group of friends give you constructive advice when you’re trying to figure out how to dress for an event or choose a new skincare routine.
In particular, when I see a lot of people who want to improve their lives with a new look but don’t know where to start, take the advice of netizens, and actually have success. That’s why many people usually see Tingquan as an opportunity to improve themselves. It is not only in terms of appearance but also confidence and social skills.
One of the most popular examples is a blogger called ‘Xiao Ai’ (小艾同学). Who in 2021 posted a message asking netizens for advice on how to improve his appearance, accompanied by a selfie. Many of the netizens were genuinely keen to help with everything from how to style an outfit to skin management. There were even people giving incredibly detailed tips on what color tops to wear with what type of trousers, where to shop from, and how much to spend. After a year had passed, he had experienced a complete transformation.
It makes me marvel at the sense of friendliness in this community atmosphere. People helping each other improve themselves with a positive attitude towards each other.
Or…”Let me help you become more standardized”
While witnessing so many people becoming more confident, I can’t help but wonder if this is a more subtle form of beauty hegemony. Even well-intentioned advice pushes the mainstream’s prejudices about beauty standards, with comments such as ‘you’ll look better if you lose weight’.
There is always a secret desire to be ‘better’. But who determines the standard of good? Especially in the context of the East Asian culture that promotes ‘thinness’. This trend started as a platform for advice. But does the advice to be ‘slimmer, more perfect, more refined’ reinforce unrealistic ideals, and do people feel inferior because they don’t fit the norm?
I can tell you more about the “being thin” culture in East Asia. A few years ago there was an internet trend called the ‘A4 Waist Challenge’. It challenges women to compare their waistline to a piece of A4 paper (21cm or about 8.3 inches wide). If your waistline is less than or equal to the width of the paper, it means you have an ideal body shape.
Whilst the ‘A4 waist’ is a more intuitively narrow and unhealthy body standard, Tingquan can be more subtle, using the language of self-improvement as a wrapper. I can’t help but think back to well-meaning friends and even strangers who said things like, ‘You’d look so much better if you are less chubby’ or ‘Why don’t you wear make-up more often?’ They weren’t trying to hurt me, but the impact was the same, which is that I felt like I wasn’t good enough.
So when I read Tingquan’s posts, I was conflicted. On the one hand, I’m genuinely happy for those people, and on the other, I wonder if it subtly contributes to aesthetic hegemony. Do you feel the same?
Very interesting post! You highlight well how something can seem innocent at first but has a huge societal impact with a lot of disadvantages too. It is very difficult to draw a line between giving some friendly advice on appearance and dictating how someone should look.
Really nice blog! It reminds me of the TikTok trend where people post a video of themselves and caption it “How can I improve my looks? Be brutally honest”. Comments on those TikToks show the same things that you are mentioning here; some contain really just well-meant advice, but others just highlight things that I honestly would never even have noticed. I feel like the whole trend might not be helping people at all, but instead just make them insecure.