Are you one of those people who eat, sleep and breathe social media? Someone who compulsively checks Facebook and Instagram the moment you wake up in the morning and has major FOMO issues? Then this might just be the thing for you. A Chinese University is offering a course on how to go viral on the internet. Yes, you heard it right!
The Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College near Shanghai is offering a three-year course on Modelling and Etiquette that intends to teach students "aesthetic cultivation," "fashion sensitivity," "public relations etiquette" and photography skills. While most classrooms include boards and overhead projectors, classrooms for the course mostly comprise dance studios, catwalks and makeup rooms and the skills taught include applying makeup, dressing up in chic outfits and performing on camera. Students are also taught all about various luxury brands from the world over.
"I like dressing myself up really pretty and take pictures. I feel like this major really suits me," Jiang Mengna, who is majoring in the course, told AFP. She is reportedly often seen walking around the university campus with a selfie stick and also live streams details of her day and her routine.
The course has become so popular among students that many are even quitting conventional courses and taking up Modelling and Etiquette. "I have always had an idea, a dream to be on stage with the lights on me and the crowd watching me," Wang Xin explained to the agency. She is 20 and switched to the fun course after trying her hands at accounting.
The course has become so popular probably because of how the social media has become an important part of everyone's life and how users have started perceiving the idea of going viral on the internet. Speaking about it dance teacher Hou Xiaonan told AFP: "The requests and demands for our major are rising because the e-commerce industry is developing rapidly."
While the whole idea of talking about good fashion and photographs on social media has really caught on now, the trend first came to notice when Wang Houhou and her friend Wang Ruhan started posting fashion and style tips on social media. The duo became an overnight sensation and garnered massive attention not just from their fans but also retailers for endorsements.
"I would just find a very interesting item that I would wear, and I would take weird photos of it and post it on the blog, and people really go and buy this stuff," Houhou explained.
So in case you love dressing up and taking images and dream of being on the front row or maybe the runway in London, Paris, Milan, and New York, you should probably first take a detour to China and get a degree in internet stardom. That might just be your claim to fame!
