Last week, in a Chinese town you’ve probably never heard of, we introduced the concept of hipsters to our students. I guess it was kind of cool. If you’ve ever tried to explain this recent phenomenon to someone unfamiliar with it, you may know that it can be difficult to explain, and even harder to undertand. We tried our best to make it comprehensible, even if the students didn’t know the definition of the word ironic.

First thing on the agenda: dress like hipsters. The night before class Arianna, Reuben, and I planned out carefully what we were going to wear. Arianna went for the I’m-a-young-woman-wearing-vintage-clothes-and-grandma-glasses look. To top it all off she made sure to wear her Converse. Reuben went for the apple product indie hipster. With headphones draped around his teal v-neck he pulled off a convincing outfit. I donned thick-rimmed grandfather bifocals, a skin tight shirt, and rolled up skinny jeans. All that was missing was the handelbar mustache.

We came to class among mixed oohs and ahhs. “Ooh you look so cool!” screamed one student with what might have been sarcasm. “Why are you wearing those glasses? You look so old” said others. Clearly, this was not going to be any ordinary day.

Ten minutes later, my students were still struggling with the concept. I pretended that I didn’t care too much and wasn’t worried – getting stressed would have been way too mainstream. Instead, I tried a new tactic. “Ok. What would you guys think if I grew out a huge mustache and beard?” “What?” “Do you think it would make me really attractive?” “Nooooooo!” the girls in my class screamed in unison. “A hipster grows out his mustache because many people find it unattractive.” After a moment of silence, some students seemed to get it, smiling quietly and nodding their heads ever so slightly.

Now I had to test their knowledge. I split the class into groups, outlining a skit for each of them to perform. Here are some of the highlights:

On trying to buy a pair of jeans: “No! You need to be yewnique, not normarl!”

One hipster explaining to another that the stickers on her clothes and face come from a store she has never heard of: “Ridiculers! Stupid! I know where that sticker store is!”

On clothing: “You look like a beggar!” “No! No one has the same shoes as me!”

On relationships: “I love you so much but I want to be the unique one. Let’s break up.”

Later, a hipster commenting on the tearful breakup: “Ugh, I can’t believe they’re quarreling. That’s so typical.”

Although many of their ideas seemed to hit the mark, with an absence of flannel and skinny jeans the Jishou students could only compensate with weird hairstyles and headbands. While they failed to talk fluently about obscure music (aside from Reuben’s jazz) and veganism, at least my students posed for the camera in a disinterested fashion. Moments like those made me unreasonably proud, erm, I mean, somewhat amused. Meh.

-Nick