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Al-Araby
Al-Araby
Upon searching the words “Syrian Style” on Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu (similar to Instagram) one is confronted with a seemingly endless feed of mostly young women posing, coffee in hand, atop piles of rubble or beside gaping holes in bare concrete walls. The unblemished influencers in these images contrast a jarringly devastated looking backdrop in one of China’s newest online trends. The captions are littered with Syrian flags and tagged “Syrian Style” in what has become a darkly insensitive trend on Chinese social media. “While those using the tag on their photos might harbour no i…