杀马特
What Does 杀马特 Mean?
A phonetic adaptation of 'smart' representing a subculture that emerged from non-mainstream aesthetics. Emerging around 2008, characterized by distinctive fashion, makeup, and online presence—often used as a cultural marker of early 2000s internet youth.
Origin Story
The term 杀马特 appeared around 2008 as a phonetic play on 'smart,' coined within the non-mainstream subculture community. It distinguished itself from the purely online 非主流 by being an embodied, real-world identity. The movement centered on barber shops in industrial towns where young factory workers gathered to style their hair and socialize. Key documentation came from photographer 李一凡 (Li Yifan), whose 2019 documentary '杀马特我爱你' (Sha Ma Te I Love You) brought serious attention to the subculture as a legitimate social phenomenon.
Cultural Context
杀马特 (Smart) is arguably the most misunderstood subculture in Chinese internet history. The term itself is a phonetic rendering of the English word 'smart,' but the movement it describes was anything but intellectual — it was a working-class youth rebellion dressed in neon hair, studded belts, and platform boots. Unlike 非主流, which was primarily an online aesthetic practiced by urban middle-class teens, 杀马特 was a real-world subculture rooted in China's factory towns and migrant worker communities. Young people who had left rural homes to work in manufacturing jobs used their modest earnings to create spectacular visual identities that rejected both traditional rural values and urban conformity. The elaborate hairstyles — often requiring hours of salon work and entire cans of hairspray — were a form of conspicuous consumption and self-assertion. Mainstream Chinese society largely ridiculed 杀马特 as vulgar and low-class, revealing deep class prejudices. In recent years, there has been a critical reassessment of 杀马特 as a legitimate youth movement and a poignant expression of working-class identity in rapidly industrializing China. The term originated and spread primarily on Tieba (Baidu Post Bar).
Similar Expressions in English
非主流 (fēi zhǔ liú)葬爱家族 (zàng ài jiā zú)精神小伙 (jīng shén xiǎo huǒ)
How Is It Used?
Chinese Explanation (中文解释)
非主流亚文化的代称，源于英文'smart'的音译，代表特定的网络审美和生活方式。