SHAMATE

Shamate (杀马特) Shamate is a subculture that emerged in mainland China in the 2000s, popular among urban migrant youth. The term is a transliteration of the English word "smart." It is visually influenced by gothic subculture or visual kei, characterized by exaggerated hairstyles.Their appearance reflects their sense of alienation from urban life, and fused their earthy sensibilities with the swaggering bombast of Japanese Visual Rock, had offered them a rare chance at dignity and self-expression.

Ji was born and grew up in a pleasant family in a small, remote town on the Chinese-Russian border. When she was growing up, she was surrounded by lots of "Shamate". They are all from poor famers family, middle-school dropouts with absent parents who flocked to cities in search of better jobs, and who were shocked by the brutal labor conditions and urban snobbery. However, society is too intolerant; even slight physical modifications label them as societal heretics, the bottom rung of the disdain ladder. These Shamate individuals' distinctive hairstyles, appearances, and lifestyles are labeled as heretical due to society's narrow-mindedness and intolerance, positioning them at the bottom of the disdain hierarchy.

The Fading Blue, Paiting, 45 x 12cm

Ji have lived with them, 'I know the brand of cheap cigarettes in front of the computer desk. I know the yellowed walls of their rental houses, their dirty keyboards, and the leftover soup in plastic bags. I know their fragility. I want to find a way through my work to understand them and let them be rembered and valued. Though they are 'disappearing', their presence deserves to be remembered.'

The Fading Blue, Sculpture

The Fading Blue, plexiglass