«Playing Dress-up»
Over the past few years, a unique trend has emerged in China: millions of people travel to ancient cities to take pictures in traditional Chinese costumes. Over the course of 8 months, I documented the tourists of Beijing and Luoyang, exploring themes of consumer culture, the romanticization of history, and the influence of social media in shaping modern perceptions of tradition in China.
Since the lifting of COVID restrictions, a growing number of Chinese tourists visit cities that were once ancient capitals of China such as Beijing, Luoyang, Xi’an and Nanjing, and go to special stores to rent traditional Chinese costumes for the day and ‘daka’ (打卡), a Chinese social media neologism meaning ‘to check in’ to a tourist destination by posting photos online. Depending on the dynasty, they choose from an array of costumes, all called by a general name «Hanfu» (Han peoples' clothing). These kinds of clothes were only worn by people of power and nobility, but nowadays, anyone can become an emperor or empress for the day: rent a costume that comes with a make-over, and often a photographer too, for as low a price as 80 RMB (11 USD).
I shot this project in the period of August 2024-March 2025, documenting the costume tourism trend in Beijing and Luoyang. I try to show a different side of this social behaviour, not posted on social media, and explore the surrealism of modern-day tourism in mainland China, the obsessiveness over ‘the perfect shot’ for social media and the FOMO that comes with it.
