Photographs of Chinese Schoolchildren's Blisters – An Exhibition on Misfortune (7 photos)

In China, they held a very unusual photo exhibition, featuring only photographs of "writer's calluses." These are the calluses on the middle finger that form from writing with a pen.





And you will have the same, my dear.

Chinese schoolchildren have a hard life and study 14 hours a day, as we've already discussed. And a good student is often identified by their callus. If you've been drawing characters and numbers for 10 hours a day, you have a thick callus. And if you were playing on your phone, then your hands are normal. Ugh, shameful. It's amazing how a distorted body has become the hallmark of a proper young Chinese man. Photographers have also noticed this, so Qiao Fei'er opened an exhibition about it called "The Body That Forms Us." It's about the calluses children develop from school. Some girls say it's unsightly. And they want to have SURGERY to correct their finger (the indentation from the pen) after passing their exams and entering university. As if writing isn't required.



Very strange photography, supposedly profound, but it's not.

The photo exhibition features over a hundred students' fingers, and it's striking that each callus is unique. The Chinese find a deep philosophical meaning in this, that knowledge leaves its own unique mark on each person.

Chinese Finger Wave

This is how they take pictures of their fingers under bright light

The publication of news about this exhibition and the exhibition itself caused a stir among Chinese youth. The news garnered 20,000 comments and also sparked a wave of people taking photos of their "writer's calluses." Incidentally, everyone who provided their fingers for the photo shoot was surveyed about their daily routine. It turned out that 75% of the 117 students who responded spent more than six hours a day holding a pen. Eighty-five percent believed that finger deformities were normal.



Chinese aesthetes and hipsters are delighted

Among parents and teachers, 75% said they paid no attention to the problem. The vast majority of students were also indifferent to their calluses, while one high school student in science class even said he liked his callus because it symbolized his dedication to his studies. "The bigger the callus, the better the student," he said, adding that he felt no academic pressure whatsoever.



Opening exhibition booth

Grandparents even praise their grandchildren for their calluses, while small children are upset if their hands are normal. Although you can buy rubber finger pads in stores for sensitive skin, most people don't wear them – they're too uncomfortable and difficult to get used to. Taking a photo of calluses is very symbolic. But in reality, myopia and hunched posture are common among Chinese students during their school years.



Some schools are using posture correctors.

Furthermore, many children develop poor eating habits; they learn to swallow food very quickly, like dogs, in order to get back to class faster. This all sounds very ironic given the slogan on the school education brochure: "Education is like growing a tree. We must allow the child to grow freely." And it's doubly ironic that the school's strict rules even regulate the length of students' hair and forbid girls from growing bangs. It sounds insultingly hypocritical.



A picture that makes every young Chinese man sick to his stomach.