<p>Over the past few years, Internet aesthetics have become increasingly popular as subcultures in online communities. While few studies have analyzed popular Western Internet aesthetics such as Dreamcore, little is known about the newborn Internet aesthetics associated with Chinese culture and society, such as the Nostalgia core—an Internet aesthetic designed to evoke nostalgic feelings. For instance, how meaning is constructed in the Nostalgia core through signs and symbols in a cultural-specific context (i.e., the Chinese millennial culture) remains unclear. Moreover, although it has been suggested that aesthetic nostalgia evoked by artworks has a positive-dominant affective profile, whether viewers interpret the Nostalgia core as more positive or negative has not been elucidated. Hence, this study examines the narrative construction and affective profile of the Nostalgia core content to identify the aspects of this specific Internet aesthetic. The results indicate that the Nostalgia core may evoke negative emotions, highlighting the sense of “in-between” and the misalignment between childhood memories and the present reality. This study indicates the importance of cultural context in affective evaluation during aesthetic experiences. Further, the results enrich our understanding of aesthetic expressions and affective experiences in contemporary Chinese Internet aesthetics from a cultural perspective.</p>