Ever thought about the question: Are you being treated because of yourself or because of your label?
As the saying goes, first respect the robes and then respect the people. This is an indisputable truth, both then and today. Sociologist Baudrillard proposed the concept of "symbolic consumption".
According to his theory, in the consumer society, in addition to consumer goods, people's body, psychology, concepts, behaviors and other things may become consumer goods, and through consumption reflect the social status and identity of the subject.
For example, the senior management of a company will generally choose the upper-grade cars such as Mercedes-Benz or Audi when allocating the car, rather than the Volkswagen, because the car at this time is not only a means of transportation, but also shows the public the performance of the owner's personal performance.
Over time, in social culture, the unwritten rule of "people of grade A equipped with items of grade A and finally get the treatment of grade A" have been formed.
When a person's temperament, demeanor, and dress have become a measure of the person's social status, is it possible that when a person of grade C is equipped with items of grade A, he can get the treatment of grade A?
Don't worry, someone has actually done a bold experiment lately.
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Zou Yaqi, a graduate of the 2021 class of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, was only an unremarkable CAFA undergraduate before the end of this summer, but after this summer, her novel and bold graduation design has attracted the attention of the whole society and once became an online figure.
The graduation project she made perfectly conformed to Baudrillard's concept of symbolic consumption. In the experiment, Zou Yaqi lived in Beijing for 21 days without any money.
In the city of Beijing, if you want to live a normal life for 21 days, even if you only calculate the cost of eating and drinking, you have to exceed 1,000 yuan, and if you want to spend no money, you can probably only sleep on the street and beg along the street.
But Zou Yaqi did not, she not only dressed neatly and decently in the past 21 days, lived a rich and comfortable life, and was also very courteous everywhere she went.
What's going on?
On September 17, 2021, Zou Yaqi posted a long Weibo on his personal social platform, disclosing his graduation design.
In the long article, she said that from May 1 to May 21, 2021, she lived in the city of Beijing for 21 days without spending money, and the whole time she was as elegant as a celebrity.
However, Zou Yaqi wrote in the first sentence of the long text that "I am not a celebrity", how can I be as elegant as a celebrity? The answer, of course: pretending to be a celebrity.
Yes, the topic zou Yaqi wants to do is to explore whether people can survive calmly through some of the excess materials produced by this society.
In her personal experience, the objects of these societies' excess supplies are very interesting, and they are usually given to those who seem to be materialistic, such as high-end hotel lobbies where they sleep for free, free airports and hotel baths, and first-class lounges.
In addition, she has survived safely and decently by sleeping in IKEA's model house, sneaking into weddings or cafeterias, and using the FMCG brand's refund policy to obtain free items.
On May 20, Zou Yaqi slept in the lobby of a hotel in Beijing, which occupies an acre of land; on May 11, he worked all day in the study room of the IKEA model room.
She believes that although she has only a brief moment of obtaining the right to use these items, this moment is also eternal.
In the end, she came to an interesting but thought-provoking conclusion, that is, by relying on this distribution of social excess resources, she could safely spend only a hundred years of her life without spending a penny.
As long as society buys it this way, she can live like this all the time, so it seems that she is no different from those who have 70 years of property rights, or even those who own a country.
How did Zou Yaqi do it?
Unlike those "platter celebrities" who use the "Pinduoduo way" to piece together a mansion or share high-end afternoon tea, Zou Yaqi dressed herself up as a celebrity on the outside, and then spent the 21-day experimental period by "rubbing food and drinking".
To dress up, you have to have a head.
Therefore, Zou Yaqi first bought a high-imitation brand-name bag for himself for a few thousand yuan, and then spent 18 yuan to buy a fake diamond ring, and the rest of the configurations such as pearl necklaces, shoes and clothes did not cost much.
With the head of the line, Zou Yaqi officially began his mixed eating days in Beijing.
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On May 1, Zou Yaqi met a maid bar near the school, and they pulled her to help, and also rubbed a comic exhibition for free.
In fact, Zou Yaqi did not provide any help to the comic exhibition, her appearance was only to make the comic exhibition look more crowded, during the day, the bar was responsible for packing Zou Yaqi's fare and lunch box, and at night she slept in the comic exhibition car.
After the show, she explained her entire plan to the bar owner and explained that she might need to stay at the airport for a few days.
The bar owner seemed to have been persuaded by her plan, was very interested, and bought her a ticket so that she could access the waiting room at the airport.
Every place Zou Yaqi went was something she stepped on in advance, although at first she was worried about whether she would meet bad people, but she did not expect that the whole process was unusually smooth, and she did not encounter anyone who harassed her.
When she needed to rest during the day, she would go to the model room of IKEA to sleep, and at night she would come out to find a random bar, go straight to the sofa to sleep, and once she did so, she slept until four o'clock in the morning and no one bothered her.
Food acquisition is also very simple, free snacks in high-end hotels and free snacks in airport VIP lounges have become the source of Zou Yaqi's meals.
In order to eat and drink, she also disguised herself as a wedding friend in a high-end hotel, sat down to eat a full meal, and once mixed into the cafeteria to eat.
With his own profession, Zou Yaqi has not encountered any obstacles in almost any high-end places.
For example, when going to see the exhibition, a kind hotel security guard took the initiative to help take pictures, help to take water and serve coffee, and after colleagues persuaded him not to disturb Zou Yaqi to see the exhibition, he was still busy with diligence.
In Zou Yaqi's view, this security guard probably regarded her as a little rich woman who went out alone to be so attentive.
The next day, Zou Yaqi simply sneaked into the shower room of the hotel, signed a customer's name when he entered the door, and got the number plate.
It was very well stocked, every item was not inferior, the hair dryer was negative, disposables were available, and here she took one of the most comfortable baths in her life.
Another time, Zou Yaqi was at the Gucci store under the airport VIP lounge, asking the cabinet sister if she could give her a bag, and said that she would spend it here next time she was free.
I thought I might be rejected, but who knew that the cabinet sister would not say a word and brought a brand new bag to her. Zou Yaqi checked the bag on his mobile phone after going out and found that it was a circulating commodity on Taobao, priced at 20 yuan a piece.
Maybe the cabinet sister would not have thought that this young girl who returned to the first-class lounge with a bag would be a fake and shoddy rich second generation.
In these twenty days, Zou Yaqi went to countless high-end brand stores to try on jewelry, casually greeted millions of jewelry with her hands, and no cabinet sister was dissatisfied with her requirements, providing her with services that were no different from that of real rich people.
This discovery made Zou Yaqi feel quite guilty, because she found that those cabinet sisters actually did not pay attention to whether she bought or not, only whether she was willing to wear it or not.
Soon, at the end of experiment 21, she came to the lobby of a high-end hotel and walked straight to the sofa, where no one cared about her, and she ended up sleeping here for the night.
After returning to school, Zou Yaqi sorted out her 21 days of experience, and when it came time to hand over the graduation project, her work was very peculiar, a sofa, because in these 21 days, the place where she slept the most was the sofa in various high-end areas.
Some people will ask, what can Zou Yaqi's graduation work express? Is it to show that the life of the rich class in modern society is too extravagant? Or is it a drunken fan who accuses society as a whole?
Later, this matter made a lot of noise, and once appeared on the hot search, Zou Yaqi was forced to respond to a video, in which she said that these 21 days are actually a simple discussion of whether people can get convenience through some of their own small disguises in the case of excess resources in society.
The answer, of course, is yes. But in fact, this does not fundamentally prove that "C disguises itself as A to get A's services", in fact, Zou Yaqi obtains the service consumption attached to those high-end places.
To take a similar example, a diner who walks into Haidilao, in the process of eating hot pot, will definitely get "excess services" that other hot pot restaurants cannot experience, and these services do not require additional fees. Even McDonald's will provide homeless people with a place to stay at night.
So, theoretically, as long as someone can successfully disguise himself as a diner here, he will not need to pay for these excess services. Zou Yaqi obtained additional services from those high-end places by pretending to be a celebrity.
Whether it is a bag of a high-end brand or a shower room in an upscale hotel, it is an extra service for upscale venues.
Moreover, the average service staff, it is difficult to think that one day there will be a customer disguised as a rich family, they provide, are the daily standard services for other customers.
Therefore, it is difficult to say that Zou Yaqi's experiment has any social significance.
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Looking at the whole process of Zou Yaqi's incident, in fact, whether she has explained in essence how the gap between rich and poor in society arises, and whether she has touched the core of the world's resource allocation, her experiment as a performance art has met the graduation design requirements of an undergraduate art student.
Originally, young people, especially the student group, it is good to dare to try and explore, not to mention, Zou Yaqi also portrayed a vivid picture of the life of the rich class to people.
In a sense, life is indeed as she said, there is room to drill, but the world is like a kaleidoscope at the same time, there will be B sides with A side, and even more sides, while considering being able to use "excess resources" to live, perhaps Zou Yaqi also has to consider the possibility of living more.
Author: Black Cat