For Hypebeast China‘s latest digital cover, we have no interest in retelling the overnight-success myth of a fashion influencer. Instead, through Tan Suan, we want to reflect how an entire generation of young women creators grows and defines itself as time moves forward. Her path from individual creator to a broader cultural presence also offers a window into how China’s new generation of creative talent is being seen by the world, and how it is starting to shape global fashion and luxury culture.

In an era that treats “effortlessness” as gospel, ease is the aesthetic face she presents to the world. Her deep reverence for the craft and her constant self-scrutiny are the homework she keeps for herself. The outside world tends to reduce top-tier access, flawless polish and an idealized life into data points and labels. On the other side of the light is her clear-headed reflection. Social media may capture her present, but it cannot simply define what kind of woman she is. Her humility and focus, her habit of “keeping herself low,” is not timidity. It is a creator’s deepest instinct: to avoid the floating froth of a restless visual tide and build her own aesthetic order and artistic perspective.

This is not only about Tan Suan. It captures a moment in which women creators are moving from “being looked at” to “expressing themselves.” They are no longer content to be pretty faces generating noise and numbers in front of the camera. Over time, they are turning the camera into an extension of self-expression and artistic exploration. In fast-cycling pop culture, she delivers liveliness and cool with precision in front of the lens. Behind it, she quietly refines the aesthetic logic behind her content, her deeper understanding of style, and the ultimate question of “who am I.”

Tan Suan’s trajectory also offers an entry point into how Chinese creative culture is changing. In the past, young Chinese creators were largely watched and defined within the context of global fashion and pop culture. Today, more and more of China’s new creative talent is entering conversations around global fashion and luxury on the strength of their own taste, visual language and cultural experience, and becoming part of what shapes trends and sets context. Tan Suan is a powerful case study for this narrative. As China’s cultural influence keeps reaching outward, how do young creators carry their own perspective onto the world stage, and redefine what “from China” means in a global context?

This cover, then, is an in-depth conversation with the social media filter stripped away. Using Tan Suan as our subject, we try to glimpse the inner world beneath the images and symbols, and to explore how a woman, shaped by time, grows a soul and a sense of self with real depth. Through her personal journey, we also revisit the cultural migration now underway among China’s new generation of creators on the world stage. Refusing to be defined by social media and retreating to the low, deep places within has become her strongest armor. Because only by letting time settle can she keep both feet on the ground, and, amid ever-shifting trends, grow a genuine strength of her own that outlasts both traffic and the years.

If you divided your life so far into stages, how would you split it? What moments mark the dividing lines?

I feel my life so far really only has two stages. I haven’t lived enough yet to break it down that finely. Before 25 was the first stage, when I didn’t truly know myself. Now I’ve just stepped into the second stage, where I’m figuring myself out.

You started facing the camera very early, and went from “being seen” to enormous exposure. Looking back, do you think being seen really equals being understood?

For me, being seen is often more like the beginning of being misunderstood. The internet puts a filter over everyone through the screen. What people see are compressed fragments, not a three-dimensional, real you.

From the outside, your liveliness on camera looks effortless. But behind the camera, what’s the most serious work you’ve done to build an aesthetic logic that doesn’t just follow the crowd?

I’m actually someone who tries really hard. My personality is fairly low-key at its core, but the version of me online is much more lively. The most serious work is probably thinking every day about what content to make, how to edit it and how to write the script.

Whether it’s high luxury or streetwear, you always make it your own. How do you fuse pieces that seem to come from different worlds into a visual rule that’s distinctly “Tan Suan”?

There’s no complicated rule. I just go by instinct and my own taste. A lot of the time it’s simply that a combination feels more right on me, more like me. Apart from special occasions like shows, where I wear a brand’s total look, in private I don’t really like wearing head-to-toe luxury.

When you’re feeling drained and lost in real life, but the camera needs you to deliver your coolest, most perfect self, how do you handle the relationship between “Tan Suan” and “Zhuang Fei”?

When I feel drained or lost, I choose to pause and give myself space to rest and reset. I don’t like bringing negative energy online to everyone. Once I’ve sorted myself out, I start again.

Today, when algorithms and traffic quantify everything, creators can easily become “models” stripped of their agency. When did you realize you were no longer just a subject being watched, but a creator in control?

When I stopped thinking only about traffic when I posted, I could make the content I genuinely wanted to share. If everything you post is driven by traffic, you lose what makes you unique and become a symbol anyone could replace at any moment. Whether I’m shooting content or going to fashion week, as long as I’m fully immersed in something I find interesting, I don’t think much about outside factors.

As an online “curator,” how do you decide what’s worth being seen now? Is there anything you love but would never post?

I think about how to blend my personal style naturally into everyday life. As for what I’d never post: I secretly love dancing, but I’ll never put it online, hahaha, because my dancing is honestly a bit “scary.”

You’ve been invited to major fashion weeks many times and appeared in campaigns for major luxury houses. If you placed yourself today within the global fashion context, what do you think you actually bring?

A personal style that belongs to an ordinary girl, I suppose. I’m not tall, and I’m not the flawless “template beauty” of conventional standards. But I think the world’s idea of beauty should be diverse. There are countless girls like me out there, and they deserve to be seen too.

In a content battlefield where things turn over by the second, how do you see time and age shaping a woman creator? Are you afraid of being replaced by a younger algorithm, or do you look forward to time giving you deeper experience?

I think women at every age have a charm unique to that stage. Ten years ago, I never would have imagined I’d be going to fashion week shows. Rather than fearing being phased out by the algorithm, I’m more excited about the experiences and perspective time will bring me.

You’ve said that when you modeled for Taobao in high school, you just wanted to “earn some pocket money.” What has fundamentally changed about your ambition since then?

Honestly, not much. As a kid, my dream was to be able to buy clothes I liked and travel to cities I wanted to see. It’s pretty much the same now.

Social platforms keep pushing creators to cater to their logic and make the content they favor. Have you ever felt pressured by that kind of “authority,” or do you not care at all?

More or less, yes. For example, when a platform launches a new trending topic or campaign, they want you to produce content following a set template. I’m not great at saying no, but within those frameworks, I insist on doing it my own way and in my own style.

Beyond the spotlight and countless cameras, what does your most treasured private time look like? How do those unrecorded hours feed back into your work?

Probably lying at home when I’m not working, ordering a pile of takeout and watching movies, or going to a friend’s place to chat and play games, just zoning out. That offline time is extremely important to me. If I were always in that tense, on-camera state, I’d feel like I’d become a fake person living inside a digital network.

Years from now, in this complicated era, which side of Tan Suan do you hope people remember?

That she was a pretty good style creator. That’s enough.

Photographer: Xie Wenhao 
Director: Pashiko
Director of Photography: Rayclay, Mars
Editor-In-Chief: Phil Gong 
Associate Managing Editor: Buzz Lee
ASSOCIATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR & FILM PHOTOGRAPHER: H
Global Creative Director: Kevin E. Wong
Brand Partnerships Associate Director: Jamie Chan 
Producer: Noora, Yildiz
Graphic Design: Shin Tian, Forrest Grenfell 
Stylist: Cvalda Xie 
Makeup: Xandra X
Hair: WENAOMING
Styling Assistant: Chen Ling
Gaffer: Bai 
Retoucher: Zhuzhu
Editor: Rayclay 
Sound Design, Color Grade & AIGC: Pashiko
Editing Assistant: hermitttcarb 
Production Coordination: Guan Luyan 

Special Thanks to CHANEL