University students in China are getting creative with their graduation photoshoots by referencing internet memes and pop culture to express their free-spirited attitude to life.
The hashtag “do not be so serious in graduation photos” has trended online as graduation time approaches. It attracted 8 million views on a social media platform.
Some add humour to their photos, copying famous scenes from hit Chinese television dramas of their childhood, such as Empresses in the Palace and My Own Swordsman.
Others copy viral photos and internet memes, such as the famous fist pump photo of US President Donald Trump after he was the subject of an assassination attempt last year.
Some mock their unsatisfactory academic performance by taking photos of themselves throwing their diplomas into a bin.
The photos have been well received, with many people saying they display a “calm madness”. Others said the photos matched their bittersweet relationship with school.
One online observer said that they “showed a trend among young people to deconstruct everything with humour”.
Another saw them as a reflection of young people’s laid-back, self-mocking attitude towards the uncertainties of life.
The downturn in China’s job market particularly affects young graduates.
The urban jobless rate among people aged 16 to 24, excluding students, dropped consecutively for two months in February and March and stood at 15.8 per cent in April, an increase of 1.1 per cent year on year.
According to the higher education research firm MyCos, the monthly salary of new university graduates was 6,050 yuan (US$640). That of college graduates was 4,683 yuan (US$650).
According to China Index Academy, rent per square metre in Beijing was 90 yuan (US$13) in 2024 and 85 yuan in Shanghai and Shenzhen.
The nature of graduation photos has changed from the staid images of the past.
In 2012, a group of students at the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies in southern China made news for dressing like migrant construction workers in their graduation photos.
A student from another university said of the photo: “Our salary after graduation is no different from that of migrant workers,” he said.
Sociologist Fu Cheng said that the phenomenon is a way for university students to relieve the pressure they feel from the uncertainty of life.
