Routinization of Subcultural Fashion and the Depoliticization of Youth Identity
Abstract
Although subcultural fashion represented by 'three pits' (Hanfu, JK, Lolita) is becoming increasingly popular in China, the three pits and its related elements have entered mainstream fashion and are gradually shedding their subcultural identity. This paper aims to explore whether the routinization of three pits fashion necessarily leads to the erasure of its subcultural resistance meanings. Online questionnaire is utilized as a method and it was posted on the two largest social platforms in China (Xiaohongshu and Weibo). The respondents were three pits participants on this two social media. The results show that the commercialization of the style signs of three pits clothing by capital has led to the gradual loss of its resistance meaning for three pits clothing. Chinese youth no longer wear the three pits clothing to prove that they belong to a subculture group and they wear the three pits clothing mainly to construct their individual identity. However, the majority of the participants still identified themselves as practitioners of the subculture.
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