Recently, the "Chinese-style dream core" that has been hot on major platforms has hit many people, especially the post-80s and 90s. What is a "Chinese Dream Core"? After looking at the following set of pictures, you have an idea of it.
Swipe left and right to view. Image source: Xiaohongshu
To put it simply, Chinese dream cores are a visual style. It is characterized by the use of classic items from the millennium as the main elements, and with a unique hazy and rough painting style, it has a strong retro look. These familiar old objects can drive synaesthesia and memory, evoke emotional experiences that we have forgotten, and then bring great excitement and satisfaction. On social platforms, it has even become a "cyber refuge" for contemporary youth.
The collective nostalgia behind cyber connections
The classic elements of Chinese dream cores are usually extremely common objects of that era. Wisteria corridors on high school campuses, Windows 98 desktops, ring game consoles, QQ shows, and QQ pet ...... If you've lived in the millennium, you're probably familiar with them, no matter what city you're in.
Connections arise when groups project the same emotions on the same image. Everyone suddenly became innocent and gentle in the online world, and frantically showed their true memories. Sociologist R. Collins uses "emotional energy" to explain the positive psychological feelings that groups get when they are connected. He said that when individuals engage in interactions, they gain "a sense of confidence, elation, strength, enthusiasm and initiative when they take action." People who are keen on nostalgia find out in this kind of cyber connection that nostalgia is not an "isolated" emotion, but a collective emotion that many people resonate with and pursue.
However, given the uniqueness of the Chinese Dream Core, it is certainly not enough to explain its popularity in terms of human connection. From an individual point of view, the power of nostalgia is what makes people obsessed with it.
We are nostalgic for the past in order to heal the present
When many people talk about "nostalgia", their first reaction is "I'm old", as if age is the source of nostalgia. This feeling is not accurate. Studies have shown that 7-year-olds already have a sense of "nostalgia" (they love to miss birthdays and holidays). In this study, 80% of those surveyed experienced nostalgia at least once a week, while nearly half experienced nostalgia three to four times a week. （Wildschut,Sedikides, Arndt, & Routledge, 2006; Routledge, Arndt, Sedikides, &Wildschut, 2008）。 British psychologist Erica Hepper further clarified the relationship between nostalgia and age, and found that young people have a higher tendency to nostalgia, which decreases in middle age and eventually rises again in old age.
So, nostalgia and age are not absolutely positively correlated. Research shows that at any stage, nostalgia is evoked by specific story content and narrative styles, such as reunions with old friends, tasting or smelling familiarity, or revisiting old places. These experiences can lead to a desire to go back to the past (Routledge, 2013), and the more positive and uplifting emotions that come with this feeling are the main reasons for the nostalgia that people crave. Nostalgia helps us get through turbulent times
Humans naturally seek certainty and a sense of control, but turbulence often increases as they grow up, especially as adults move toward independence. Nostalgia can give us some psychological support when we are vulnerable.
Psychologist Dr. Hepper says in his research, "Nostalgia helps us deal with transitions in our lives. Young people who have just moved out of their hometown or just started their first job, and the nostalgia that comes with being familiar can provide certainty and a sense of control to help them navigate this tumultuous transition. "In the face of unfamiliar things, the psychological exertion we spend will be higher, while the familiar experiences and feelings of the past will bring less mental exertion, so that people can rest and relax, recover their energy, and then move on.
Joyful compensation in nostalgia
When mental efficacy is insufficient, we subconsciously take some "short escapes". Nostalgia is the easiest way to escape. Studies have found that negative emotions are more likely to lead to nostalgia (Wildschut, et al., 2006). Once the present life makes us feel fear, dissatisfaction, and anxiety, we want to go back to that definite and beautiful past, because nostalgia has some compensatory effect that can calm and calm us down.
Image source: Xiaohongshu @ Jinsheng
In another study, psychologists Sedikides et al. noted that when you dwell on nostalgia, it counteracts your feelings of loneliness, boredom, and anxiety, making us feel connected to others, the world, and satisfying a need for a sense of belonging (Sedikides, C., & Wildschut, T.2016; Nostalgia can even help us feel more about life, meaning in life, and self-worth to combat the fear of hopelessness or death, and to get rid of the nihilistic feeling of "meaninglessness of existence" (Routledge, et al., 2008; Routledge,et al., 2014）。 Nostalgia can make people feel warm, and nostalgia can also directly affect how we feel physically. Psychology professor Xinyue Zhou found through an experiment that people who had feelings of nostalgia in a room at 20 degrees Celsius had a higher estimate of room temperature. That said, nostalgia makes our bodies feel warmer. Psychologists believe that this suggests that the nostalgia system is related to evolution. If you can make yourself comfortable through the memory system, even if it's just a subjective feeling, it can reflect the complex and amazing adaptability of human beings. Therefore, using the ability to be nostalgic and choosing to "go back in time" for a while when you feel unwell is also a positive self-redemption.
Positive emotions will be stronger when doing this in nostalgia
A 2020 study found that although nostalgia brings positive, positive emotions most of the time, there are still some people who experience negative feelings due to individual differences in daily life due to excessive dwelling on the past (Newman, D. B. 2020).
In order to minimize or even avoid the sadness caused by nostalgia, there are some concrete ways to maximize the positive power of nostalgia.
Connect with your younger self and gain a positive sense of self
Wildschut et al. (2006) found that there is usually only one way for people to reminisce about past experiences – nearly 80% of people recall the past in a "rescue" narrative sequence, that is, describing how a person has achieved ultimate success step by step through a bumpy setback. It's a narrative that goes from negative to positive. Therefore, even if we miss some setbacks and sorrows, we will have a positive and deep emotion of "I got over them". In the "rescue" narrative, we continue to establish emotional connections with our past and young selves through nostalgia, acknowledging our own efforts and growth, so as to self-affirm and gradually form a positive self-perception. As Susan Whitbourne (1985) puts it, "The process of shaping and reshaping the story of our own life in memory makes us more aware of who we are." These subjective understandings of past experiences support us to form new resources or spiritual soil for coping with the present by chewing on past successful experiences.
Recreate the nostalgic image
What do you miss most about the time you remember? What are the ones that are sealed in the memories, and what are the ones that can be experienced again in the present? Refining and replicating the latter will give us more positive psychological feelings. For example, I miss those evenings when I was five years old, walking among my mom and dad, wrapped in happiness and security. A few days ago, I pulled my parents and got back on that path, between them as always, and it felt as if the wind of the year I was five years old had traveled through time and was blowing on me again.
With those close to you @ Reunion Hometown Year M., & Carstensen, L. L., 2003). I often can't help but miss the past, don't fall into the whirlpool of memories alone, pull up good friends, and talk about the past together~
Write at the end
This phrase is always seen in cyber nostalgia: "We cannot have youth and the feeling of youth at the same time". Youth will definitely not go back, but fortunately, the feeling of youth will give us support and encouragement for a long time to come. When we are lonely, sad, and helpless, looking for the shadow of the past in the Chinese dream core can bring us some comfort. Finally, I would like to share a quote from Camus: "To be generous to the future is to give everything to the present." "Only by working hard to live well in the present, we will gain more strength in the future when we are nostalgic.