China’s goth community posted selfies wearing black lipstick and sombre white makeup in an online protest over a peer who was forced to remove her makeup before boarding a subway car.
The social media blitz prompted an apology from the transport company in the southern city of Guangzhou.
Goths are a subculture known for their black clothes and makeup — with a popular segment known as “Gothic Lolita” whose members dress in dark outfits inspired by Victorian dolls. Writing about the encounter on her Weibo social media account, the woman, who goes by the username EIGA-In My Heart, said she was stopped by a female security officer at a Guangzhou metro station on March 10 after her makeup was deemed “too scary”.
“On the basis of what law am I being stopped and my time being wasted? “If there is, I will make a banner for the station of my own expense stating: thick makeup and goth outfits are prohibited on the metro,” she wrote, adding that it was not the first time this has happened to her.
The community jumped to her defence on social media, posting selfies in full make up on Twitter-like Weibo using the hashtag,#ASelfieForTheGuangzhouMetro.
In a country where anything deemed subversive and counterculture can be subject to censorship, the hashtag has quickly gained traction, attracting thousands of posts and some nearly 5.8 million views.