This story could easily be the plot of a dystopian film. The Shanghai tramp, probably, even in his wildest dreams, did not imagine that one day he would be the center of attention of the entire Chinese blogosphere, and the first wanhun beauties would be ready to marry him. How knowledge of Chinese classics can make you a celebrity and what lengths video bloggers are willing to go to for views - in the translation of the Sixth Tone article The Invasion of the Livestreamers: How a Man Became a Meme.
The Chinese Internet is a fountain of unexpected jokes and wordplay. The memes of the past year perfectly illustrate the mood of Chinese users, the peculiarities and salt (盐粒儿) of their humor. Forgotten works gain new life, and fashionable characters gain viral popularity. The newspaper has prepared its list of memes of 2018 on the Chinese Internet.
The phrase “I don’t think this is appropriate” is usually used in the deliberately calm and serious tone of a judge of a speech, argument, video or any other content online or in real life. As a rule, this begins a simulated dialogue, which is instantly picked up by other participants in the conversation, continuing it with other well-known meme phrases. This is not done in order to really express an opinion, but more often in order to defuse the situation, to piss off the interlocutor a little, or just for fun.
You've probably heard of "Chinglish" - a variant of the English language, created under the influence of Chinese, full of grammatical and other errors, but which can be found quite often on signs in public places. But not everyone knows that there are English words that have become part of the modern Chinese lexicon, while practically losing their original meaning. We decided to collect several common Anglicisms that in China do not mean what you think.
Back in the 19th century, German philologist Wilhelm Humboldt pointed out the mutual connection between language and the spirit of the people, which remains relevant for students of foreign languages in our time. By getting to know another culture, we deepen our knowledge of the language, and by studying a language, we better understand the worldview of its speakers. In the project “5 minutes in Chinese,” Magazeta will talk about the origin of current words and expressions that will help you look at this world from the Chinese bell tower.
The phrase is used to describe people who become sensations in show business, or sensational events themselves. Here the emphasis is placed on the fact that when publishing primary information about a sensation, as a rule, there is not enough evidence of a particular event, and then users, in the process of discussion (and raising a wave of public interest in the event), find the necessary evidence. Thus they say “if you need a hammer, there will be a hammer,” in the sense of “if you need evidence, there will be.”
How to imagine 2017 in Russia without “eshkere”? Internet memes quietly enter our everyday speech, instantly - and it is already difficult to do without them. New events require new words and expressions, including in China. We have prepared a selection of 15 Internet memes, without which it would be more difficult to understand the Chinese in 2017.
Their blogs have more followers than some countries' presidents on Twitter. Their influence is comparable to show business stars. They are a new category of celebrities. In Chinese they are called wanhong (网红), and the expression “wanhong economy” is increasingly heard. The newspaper has compiled a list of the most influential Internet celebrities of 2017.
This winter, only the lazy did not download the application of the Chinese developer Meitu and experiment with cute images of themselves and others. Donald Trump was especially popular. And although many Russian media wrote about the dangers of using the application, which asks for permission to obtain excessive information, this did not stop hundreds of thousands of users. However, this is far from the only such application that is popular among the Chinese. What else should you install on your smartphone?
Peter "PPD" Dagher is known in the English-speaking community not only as a brilliant captain and world champion, but also as a very hot-tempered fellow. In ranked play, it is very easy to piss him off: Peter begins to get angry, swear and make jokes towards his teammates and enemies. In the end, the nickname Salt King stuck to him (by salty - in the gaming community, to lose one's temper after a defeat), which he happily supports on streams and on social networks. His calling card was caustic comments towards other players and the famous Salty Adventure clips, which collected almost half a million views. As soon as Peter appears on the screens, a portion of salt shakers is sent into the Twitch chat. So, unwittingly, the PJSalt emoticon became the personal sign of PPD.
Don't question mark me lol
The question mark is the ideal way to communicate during a match. Three of them tried to kill you, but failed? Send "?" to chat. Did you manage to finish off your own tower under enemy fire? The principle of operation is the same. This irritates your opponent quite well and adds a special sarcastic flavor to the game.
This little puber meme reached a new level during The International 6. In the match between EG and TNC Pro Team, the Americans were forced to pause, but did not report the reason. Jimmy "DeMoN" Ho, trying to find out what happened, sent a question mark to the general chat. PPD’s reaction was quick and went down in the history of memes - “Don’t question mark me lol.” Now that Valve changed the money symbol from an exclamation mark to a question mark by April 1, this meme has become even more popular.
LMFAO wHo cAREAS HAHA Xd
Arthur “Arteezy” Babaev is a real treasure trove of memes that are loved not only in the English-speaking community. One of the funniest instances went viral thanks to one of Jackie "EternalEnvy" Mao's blogs. In it, the player complained about the many tournaments with dozens of insignificant matches and cited the meeting between Evil Geniuses and compLexity as examples. Then the “evil geniuses”, who had seriously gained momentum in the tournament, lost the series with a score of 0:2. Jackie asked what was the matter. To which Arthur replied: “LMFAO wHo cAREAS HAHA Xd.” Now, as soon as the favorites lose a minor match, it not only evokes thoughts about 322, but also about this phrase. And really, they don’t care!
Scientists baffled
EternalEnvy for the English-speaking community is one of the most desirable victims for memes. The most common one is about "scientists who are baffled by one person's ability to screw up any situation." This meme originated far from the eSports community, but it fit perfectly with the story about Jackie Mao, who is capable of losing any game and failing in the most important match. This picture already has hundreds of variations, but almost all moments with EternalEnvy failures begin with the phrase Scientists baffled.
Win TI before u talk
“Win TI before you speak” is a serious argument in Dota disputes. The meme was born in August 2013 thanks to Jonathan “Loda” Berg, who reacted this way to one of Arteezy’s statements. True, the Swedish player invited the young Canadian to win the LAN tournament. The International in this phrase appeared after TI4. In one of the podcasts about the tournament, Peter Dagher said that he was disappointed with Alliance's performance. Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Anberg responded to this phrase in the chat. A year later, PPD complied with the request of the Swedish hardliner and began to scatter this quote in pubs and chats.
FIRED
A meme that rightfully deserved the title of one of the best of last year. The most vivid memory of the Shanghai Major is not only the technical problems, but also the dismissal of James "2GD" Harding. After hundreds of Reddit threads and thousands of comments, Gabe Newell famously wrote that the company "had problems with James" and that "James is an ass." Now, as soon as someone does something wrong on air, he is reminded of his possible fate with the short word FIRED. Nobody wants to be in James' shoes.
Dark Seer Vacuum
It's hard to find a hero who gets more "love" from IceFrog than Dark Seer. What the developers love most is changing the cooldown of the Vacuum ability. Starting with patch 6.75, the cooldown was increased by a couple of seconds in five versions in a row. In patch 6.82, IceFrog also replaced the absurdity of the situation and added the line “Cooldown time changed from 28.0 to 28 seconds” to the patch. However, even after this the ability was not left alone, and there is a joke in the English-speaking community that if Vacuum is not touched in the patch, then it is not a real patch. And by this sign you can find out if IceFrog is alive.
Perfect Flower
Sometimes memes are created not by the players themselves through their actions and statements, but by users of the Reddit forum. “Perfect Flower” in relation to Johan “n0tail” Sundstein is exactly that case. In January 2015, one of the users published a funny post: “You are a flower. And you are also a river and a rainbow. You are the manifestation of all that is perfect and I want you to know that. I don't want to sound gay, but you're fucking perfect, n0tail." A short post turned into copy-paste for chats, an excuse to create hundreds of pictures and an acknowledgment of the fact that n0tail is truly wonderful!
Bulba Assassin
How many players do you know that can destroy a team? What about stealing your MMR? And those who combine both abilities? For the English-speaking community, the answer is obvious - it's Sam "Bulba" Sosale. After the triumph of Team Liquid, no matter where this American player went, the team faced failure at the most crucial moment. Over the past year, he played in Evil Geniuses, Secret and Team Liquid, but did not achieve serious results in any of the teams. And at the same time, he also prevented American players from raising their well-deserved MMR, diligently winning games against them and losing with them.
Agent 3154
The Agent 3154 meme arose at the intersection of the English-speaking and Chinese communities. At the Epicenter tournament, Team Secret, in which EternalEnvy played, met with Newbee. In the second map, the captain of the Chinese team Kaka accidentally wrote in the chat - 3154, the time when Aegis ends. At the 31st minute, Team Secret tried to storm the Newbee base with the whole team and lost four players, giving away most of the advantage. This is how the meme appeared that 3154 is a sign for Jackie that at the 31st minute five people should enter the high ground, and four of them will die. Now everyone knows that EternalEnvy is a Chinese agent in the Western world. The meme became the reason for filming a video, and the player himself uses it with pleasure, greeting the eastern public: “Agent 3154 has returned home!”
Vote Gaming
Chinese memes are more complex than Western ones, but they have extensive and interesting backstories. One of the most common is Vote Gaming in relation to the Vici Gaming team. The team really liked to change players who performed poorly in tournaments. When Tutu was suddenly replaced by Sylar, team captain Bai "rOtk" Fan explained his decision simply - that's how the team voted. The same jokes began after the departure of Dominik "Black" Reitmeier. They say that if the weak link cannot be identified the first time, the players vote a second time. And so with any problem.
Dynasty
In the West, it is customary to turn individual pictures and situations into memes, but in China, literally the entire top professional scene has become a victim of folk art. All the top players for the community are the imperial dynasty led by Xu “Burning” Zhilei. There are 4 princes with him (Fy, Sylar, Lin and Cty), and rOtk became his “favorite”. And as soon as someone shines on the professional stage, he quickly finds a place in the imperial palace, and every event at regional and international tournaments becomes part of the legend. It is a pity that the recordings currently only exist in Chinese.
Royal Guard
The latest to be inducted into the dynasty was Ou “OP” Pen, the young mid laner of the Invictus Gaming team. He has not yet found a place in the imperial family, but he has been entrusted with the role of the royal guard. All because OP couldn’t get into shape for a long time and played rather mediocre. He ended up making it his goal to commit suicide with Bloodstone to replenish Burning's health during an important fight. So he saved the life of his “emperor” more than once and earned the respect of the community.
DK Win TI4
One of the few memes in the Chinese and English-speaking community that is built on one picture. Team DK before The International 4 was one of the strongest teams in the world. They were predicted to have an easy victory at the World Championships, but the star cast only reached 4th place. However, in the hearts of enthusiastic fans, DK reached the finals, where they met Evil Geniuses in a crazy final. Decisive cards, heroes with 12 slots, exchanges of thrones were reflected in a large comic about the coolest ending, which remained only in dreams.
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Artyom Luchko
Over the years spent on the Internet, we have become accustomed to the fact that memes are a global phenomenon that does not know state borders. But in reality, many memes appear and disappear in one country because they are understandable only to those who know the local culture - they cannot be adapted. Look At Me collected 10 local memes and tried to figure out why people laugh at them.
Swedish horse
In November 2009, the then French President Nicolas Sarkozy tried to pull the wool over the eyes of Internet users by tagging himself in a photo on Facebook in which he was allegedly at the Berlin Wall at the time of its demolition. Thus, the president's PR team obviously wanted to say that Sarkozy was one of the first to break the symbol of communist tyranny. However, the propaganda trick did not work - bloggers quickly caught the presidential team in a lie, finding out that Sarkozy ended up in Berlin only a week after the historical event. After this, the French Internet was filled with other “lost” historical footage of the chronicle, which also showed Sarkozy.
In 2010, Kenyan pop music trio Just A Band released a video to his song “Ha-He”, the main character of which was a typical makmende - a superhero in the aesthetics of exploitation, who became the center of a real fever on the Internet. Hundreds of pictures with the character filled Kenyan forums and social networks, and the actor who played the role in the video appeared on the covers of glossy magazines and even became a video game hero.
"I'm becoming square"
Actually means "I'm panicking." The origin is simple - “square” and “panic” are consonant in Chinese.
绳命
"Life"
The meme originates from an interview with a Buddhist who, in a strong Hebei accent, responded to a question by saying, “Life, it’s so beautiful!” But many people heard, “Oh my God, Anna drank red.” It is somewhat reminiscent of our “zhiza”.
我和小伙伴都惊呆了
“Me and my little comrades were dumbfounded”
A phrase from a North Korean school textbook that describes a student’s reaction to the words of Grandfather Kim. The expression went viral in 2013 and means extreme surprise or shock.
手贱
"The cursor itches"
That feeling when you really want to click on a link. Even if you suspect that you shouldn't do it.
打酱油
"I'm buying soy sauce"
An analogue of the phrase in Russian is “I passed by here.” I just buy the sauce, I don’t touch anyone, don’t pay attention.
图样图森破
“Too young, too simple"
A phrase attributed to former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who commented on the “naiveness” of Hong Kong journalists in English with a terrible Chinese accent: “Too young, too simple.” Let mi speak from may hart, as they say.
无图无真相
“I won’t believe it without a photo!»
不能我一个人瞎
“I can’t go blind alone!”
十动然拒
“I’m touched, but still not!”
The expression became popular after the love story of a Chinese woman. The original phrase was “I was very touched, but then I refused him.” Now it is used in the sense of “I liked it, but still not.”
As it turns out, our internet cultures are similar in many ways. And if you want to study modern Chinese even better, you can look at the dictionary again - in addition to memes, all the most popular curse words are collected there. Yes, yes, there you can find what to call and where to send a person who has enraged you in Chinese with varying degrees of rudeness. Only, mind you, we didn’t tell you this.
