hipsters in xinjiang

Two hipsters on my train to Urumqi. Really jarring to see floppy greasy hairstyles, dirty torn t-shirts, those cloth surfer shoes worn without socks, and to smell the failure to wash. Except for the tattoos and the skin color they could have been the peasants on the train - that's what earth-working poor people in developing countries wear, not just healthy wealthy young people from America who want to look laissez-faire. Which I thought amusing. Who cares how you want to express your soul in America. But why maintain your vanities in a country that reads hipster as peasant? For each other?

One of the army men I chatted with this afternoon noted that there were two American young men in his cabin. He was appalled at how dirty they were. "Their toes were blackened with dirt," he said. Then he called them 邋遢, which I had to look up. Oxford's Chinese-English dictionary says: "slovenly."

I appreciated the opportunity to learn new vocabulary.