noise, jittering screens, empty classrooms, ancient windows computer screens, the corridors of old-fashioned residential areas... Have you ever slipped back to your childhood in an instant, reading every bit of the past like a revolving door?
Recently, a type of video with a special style has emerged on social platforms. Blurred old photos are paired with a nostalgic soundtrack, presenting a hazy sense of nostalgia. As long as you open the barrage, you will see a large number of netizens reminiscing about the past.
Netizens gave this type of video a unified name: "Chinese Dream Core".
△Source/Screenshot of Xiaohongshu
Nostalgic Wave: Returning to the Years with Blurred Memory
According to the aesthetic wiki, dream core is a kind of surrealist aesthetics, which often uses images, videos, music and other carriers as media , to describe dream-related situations (such as daydreams, nightmares, etc.). To put it simply, the familiar yet unfamiliar feeling created by such videos or pictures is like being in a dream.
△Source/Screenshot of Xiaohongshu
"Chinese Dream Core" is to combine the things we were familiar with when we were children, such as old TVs, wooden home decorations, old corridors and other common life elements in the past, and add saturation and contrast. A single operation and a mottled blur filter add a layer of color to the photos.
b website up owner @artparty also released a video specifically for this purpose "Why is Chinese Dream Core so popular?" " has received more than two million views, and the reason is explained in a more popular way:
"The content is usually related to dreams. It revolves around the life of a child, using old photos and music to create a feeling, as if it had been seen in a dream and also seemed to be. Childhood scene."
△Source/B station screenshot
As a result, more and more people began to look up old photos and join this wave of collective memories.
Someone took out an old photo of KFC coupons, which brought people back to the past. Tear off the coupons carefully, add up the prices of each coupon carefully, and you will be happy for a long time after eating once.
△Picture source/Screenshot of Xiaohongshu
Some netizens brought back the childhood “cute god” Ahri to everyone’s attention. At that time, whether it was a male or female classmate, there were always a few stickers of Ahri.
△Source/Screenshot of Xiaohongshu The complete explanation of
textbook should be a special memory for all those born in the 1990s. Having it is equivalent to having a "textbook answer". Therefore, this book is often criticized by teachers of various subjects. "block".
△Picture source/Screenshot of Xiaohongshu
I can’t tell the name or the location. The photo shared by this netizen makes people think that he and his classmates went home together on this road on a summer afternoon after school.
△Photo source/Screenshot of Xiaohongshu
These images give people a stupefying and tangible feeling, making the brain suddenly realize that these things happened ten or even twenty years ago.
More and more netizens came to the comment area, trying hard to recall their flickering memories. Those old objects are intertwined with words of unknown meaning, creating a unique atmosphere that is both familiar and unfamiliar.
Millennials: Use images to keep each other warm
In the "Chinese Dream Core" shared by netizens, one word appears frequently: "millennial".
In common sense, "millennium" refers to the year 2000. The "millennium" in "Chinese Dream Core" does not refer to an exact year, but more like a general reference, a period of time, a carefree state.
It is not difficult to find from the old photos shared by netizens that the Millennial generation has lived in an environment with the rapid development of the Internet and digital technology since childhood. After childhood, the fast pace of life and earth-shaking changes overwhelmed the slow pace of the past, and more than ten years passed by like a revolving lantern.
△Photo source/Screenshot of Xiaohongshu
Changes occur every day, society is booming, but it seems that part of the soul still remains at that time.
In these blurry old photos, some people are reliving their childhood dreams and looking back on their journey along the way.
△Picture source/Screenshot of station B
There are also netizens who have reasonable imagination. In the children's area of KFC, they met friends who can only meet once in a lifetime.
△Photo source/Tik Tok screenshot
There are also mutual encouraging conversations in the comment area. Netizens who are strangers to each other have a feeling of sympathy for each other because of the "Chinese Dream Core", which makes people feel warm.
△Picture source/B station screenshot
In conclusion, although the feeling "Chinese Dream Core" brings to everyone is nostalgic and sad, this collective reminiscence has connected the warm memories of netizens and magically evoked everyone's childhood memories. Extremely similar experiences, conveying emotions to more people.
Netizens certainly don’t know that memories have filters, and there were dissatisfactions in the past, but these are all in the past. Cherished images may be able to nourish a heart that is often about to dry up and become a force to resist despair when time comes to confront it in the future.
Xiaoxiang Morning News reporter Liu Zhongyu comprehensive report
