Common Talk Weeklyshuang yu zhou kan
issue date

Life on the go
January 7, 2004
Picture by Zhu Lijun

Inventions such as paper, printing, TV, the computer and the Internet have changed the way we work, live, think, and talk to each other. New inventions are often born when someone looks at the things we use every day and decides to make them better. With the help of modern science and technology, we can do things we could only dream of before. The more inventions there are, the more fashion we are faced with. How to be more fashionable is a question worth thinking about for all of us.

In and out

Xu Lingui, is a typical Xiamenese who has been living in this city for 21 years. He has been practicing English for 10 years.

Are you out of fashion? When girls have their hair dyed golden and brown, you realize your hairstyle has not changed much since you were a ten-year-old. When your friends greet you with “Hey, dude. What’s up?”, you awkwardly reply “Ni Hao.” All these make you feel embarrassed as you suddenly realize you are being labeled “out of fashion.” It’s time to fashion up, a voice murmurs from your heart.

However, fashion is not always what we like. We follow fashion not because golden hair can get girls their Prince Charming（白马王子）, and certainly not because saying “hey, dude” can help us hit 7.5 in the IELTS exam. Sometimes we follow fashion simply because it is too powerful that we dare not say no. Sometimes it is too risky and lonely to explore one’s own way if it does not coincide with the mainstream. It is safer and warmer to bury our heads in the mass, flow with the crowd and become one among the faceless majority. We are not courageous enough to challenge fashion.

How much courage is needed then? Not less than is needed to stab a lion, I would think. However, fashion is by no means a lion. It is nothing more than a fashionable curtain. The real lion playing behind it is what we call peer pressure, staring at our confidence and eating up our independent spirits. Young people are prone to badge themselves as “daring to be different” but few dare to be different from their peers. Young people’s hunger for peer recognition is greater than that of any other age groups. They cry out to be themselves at home while copying their peers’ pattern blindly or reluctantly at school. By adopting fashion, they are willing to trade their individual identity. Thus, “to be oneself” becomes an empty slogan as self-reliance cannot find its way in overwhelming fashion. That is the mystery of fashion.

What’s fashion about

The Chef loves his food. Never really sleeps. And he is extremely kind to children and elder people.

Fashion is about looking. As people are limited by time, only the things that immediately catch our eye capture our attention. This goes for ads, magazine covers, product packaging, and most importantly, people. In order to catch up with the rapid pace of time, we run around in a much more hurried way. Therefore, looks count for a lot more than they used to. It's what makes the first and most lasting impression that counts. Maybe this doesn’t speak for all, but sometimes a flashy mobile phone, or a nicely cut suit, or a pair of brand jeans will fit you right in there with the trend.

Fashion is about individuality. The crowd is there, it was and it will always be, no matter what the form of society. However, the meaning of the word fashion has been greatly varied. It is not only about merging into the crowd anymore, but also about standing out from it. It is the style that speaks for one and one only. What reflects one's personality and attitude starts to matter more than ever before. DIY and handmade are terms that speak loudly for trendsetters.

Fashion is about changing. Fashion never stays in one place for long. It is restless, always ready to go and explore the new fields of excitement. Along with fashion’s trace there is no peak, only plateaus（高原）. If one enjoys the view too much from one place, before you know it fashion has already sneaked by and is now nesting on higher ground leaving you behind and old-fashioned.

Fashion is about more than just things. It is about reality and imagination. It is about vanity and practicability. It is about now and the future. It is about life, you and me.

Being ourselves: best fashion

The god forgot to give me wings, so I try to fly by my imagination. —Dawn

This is a fashionable time.

The superstars and pop singers on the stage are singing and dancing in bizarre（奇异的） clothes. Charming girls and handsome boys are on the street, ready to show their motley（五颜六色的） hair. Youngsters, teenagers and even children go on indulging themselves with net-games and net-love. All these tend to tell me we have entered a fashionable new age.

Society provides us with many opportunities to behave unconventionally. Time has made us able to find modern information which teaches us to accept different cultures. People with a Bohemian style make up a group named BOBO, those who like sending messages through mobile phones are called “thumbs” and “bloggers（博客）”— use keyboards instead of pens to write their feelings on blogs (web logs). All of these new groups seem to be so new and interesting. Fashion is like a blast of wind influencing our behaviors and changing our life.

There are so many choices and so much fashion waiting ahead. We seem to be a lost generation becoming lost in too much information and forgetting what should be done. However, when we look back, fashion doesn’t leave any marks on the roads of our lives. Instead, it is the things we have insisted upon, the success we have achieved and the frustration we have overcome that has made us mature and made us who we are.

Society is telling us not to blindly follow fashions, but to project ourselves. Being ourselves is the best fashion.