See How You'd Look as a Chinese PLA Soldier with this App

By Jocelyn Richards, July 31, 2017

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Curious how you’d look in classic People’s Liberation Army garb? So is People’s Daily, apparently: the state-backed newspaper just launched a web app that lets you generate images of yourself as a PLA soldier from various decades throughout history. 

Released a day after China held a massive military parade in Beijing to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the army, the app offers netizens a novel way to spruce up selfies while being unwittingly patriotic.

We figured you might want to give it a try (because who doesn’t want to see how hot they look in Red Army garb?), so click here to access the web app (or scan the QR code below) and refer to the following steps if you need help.

QR-code-for-PLA-app

You'll have to make it through a 10-second propaganda video first (and every time you generate a new photo). Enjoy!

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Click the box in the center to move on:

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You'll see a screen with various years listed. Locate the small gray arrow beside the list, click it and hold down, scrolling up and down to change the years. When you've finished selecting the period of PLA attire you want to try on, click the red '确定’ button to confirm.

years-pla-app.jpg

You're halfway there! Next, select your gender (male 男 on left, or female 女 on right) and upload a photo of yourself. You can take a pic on the spot or select one from your photo album, just click the 'plus'  sign there in the center.

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When you've finished uploading your photo, select '穿上军装' or 'wear army attire' to see your sexy PLA portrait! 

Note: If the server is too busy, you'll see a notification pop up that asks you to wait and try again later. Unfortunately, that typically means refreshing the page, re-uploading all of your info and watching the intro again. Yay!

pla-app-server-busy-notification.jpg

But the results are well worth it. We especially had fun seeing how The Donald rocks Red Army threads:

donald-pla-app.jpg

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And if Ariana Grande could pull off the modern PLA uniform:

ariana-grande-pla-uniform.jpg

Though we like her better in the 'Nanchang Uprising' (南昌起义) look:

ariana-grande-nanchang-qiyi.jpg

To try on a different decade's uniform, just click '重新选择' on the lower left.

You can share the image directly to WeChat or save it to your phone for future use.

READ MORE: PHOTOS: PLA Celebrates 90th Anniversary with Grand Parade

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