MCLC: top ten memes of 2012

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: top ten memes of 2012
***********************************************************

Source: Wall Street Journal (12/19/12):
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/12/19/the-top-10-chinese-internet-m
emes-of-2012/

If 2011 was the year social media arrived as a force in Chinese culture
and politics, then 2012 was the year social media supercharged one of
contemporary China’s finest forms of cultural and political expression:
the Internet meme.

To be sure, the Chinese Internet has been a fertile producer of memes for
quite some time. One of 2011’s great Internet moments – the Ministry of
Railways spokesman’s haughty
<http://shanghaiist.com/2011/07/27/quote_of_the_day_wang_yongping_on_w.php>
 and ultimately career-ending effort to explain the burial of passenger
cars after a deadly high-speed train crash
<http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/07/26/weibo-watershed-train-collis
ion-anger-explodes-online/> in Wenzhou – is still going strong a year and
a half later. And of course there’s 2009’s “grass mud horse
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D2eh4xehc4>,” which appears destined for
immortality (and even a modicum of global cross-over) after being adopted
<http://www.highsnobiety.com/2012/10/24/music-video-ai-weiwei-grass-mud-hor
se-style-gangnam-style-cover/> by dissident artist Ai Weiwei.

It’s still far too early to tell whether any of 2012’s viral moments will
achieve similar reach or longevity, but the sheer volume of memes that
coursed through the Chinese Internet this year suggests at least one or
two should earn a lasting place in the country’s cyber-memory.

Beyond the continued spread of social media, it’s not completely clear why
this was such a bumper year for memes in China. Tightened censorship
<http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/06/01/charting-chinas-social-media
-censorship/> was certainly a factor in a profusion of political memes, as
was November’s Communist Party leadership transition. It’s also possible a
slowing economy  
<http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/12/10/perception-vs-reality-charti
ng-chinas-family-value/>led Chinese people to spend more time at home and
on their computers.

In any case, here are China Real Time’s favorites, listed in chronological
order:
 

1. We’ve Had Enough (Locust Ads):

This was the year people in Hong Kong and mainland China stopped even
trying to disguise their disdain for each other. After a series
ofunfortunate confrontations
<http://globalvoicesonline.org/2012/01/20/china-and-hong-kong-train-scuffle
-ignites-cross-border-fury/>, firebrand Peking University professor Kong
Qingdong went on Chinese TV to dismiss Hong Kong residents as dogs and
thieves 
<http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/01/24/chinese-professor-hong-kong-
residents-are-dogs/>. Hong Kongers responded by increasingly comparing
mainland Chinese visitors to locusts descending from north of the border
to consume the city. The anger culminated on Feb. 1 with the publication
in the Apple Daily of a full-page ad
<http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/02/01/about-that-hong-kong-locust-
ad/> depicting a giant locust standing menacingly on a cliff overlooking
the Hong Kong skyline with words “Hong Kong People Have Had Enough!”
emblazoned underneath. The ad made a lot of Chinese people angry. But it
also sparked a series of biting parodies that quickly became a form of
collective catharsis as people across the Chinese Internet vented their
frustrations with all manner of groups. Altered versions of the ad poked
fun at Chinese immigrants in the U.S. (“Americans Have Had Enough!”),
incompetent government officials (“Chinese People Have Had Enough!”),
people who talk on their mobile phones during concerts ( “Real Music
Lovers Have Had Enough!”) and many many others
<http://www.ministryoftofu.com/2012/02/despite-ugly-tension-between-hong-ko
ng-and-mainland-china-hks-accusatory-ad-becomes-internet-meme/>.

Recent sighting: Nothing really since February. Apparently Internet
jokesters themselves quickly found they’d had enough.
 

2. Vacation-Style Treatment (休假式治疗):

It didn’t take long for the first major political meme of 2012 to hit. In
early February, China’s most famous cop, Chongqing police chief Wang
Lijun, made an unexpected run for the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, where he
stayed for 30 hours before being taken to Beijing in the hands of state
security agents (and unleashing a major political crisis
<http://live.wsj.com/video/bo-xilai-inside-the-scandal---a-wsj-documentary/
13ECBCD2-EFAA-45F0-8F91-77FC92ACD54E.html>). As rumors flew, the Chongqing
municipal government announced on Sina Corp.’s Weibo microblogging service
that Mr. Wang was experiencing stress due to “long-term overwork” and was
therefore accepting “vacation-style treatment.” Few were convinced, but
“vacation-style treatment” achieved instant virality
<http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/02/08/vacation-style-treatment-chi
nas-newest-political-meme/> as a catchphrase for government obfuscation.

Recent Sighting: “You have to give society a clear answer – is it going to
be ‘vacation-style treatment’ again?” – lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan, writing on
Sina Weibo <http://weibo.com/1840604224/z6tCAeiER> in November about the
fate of Lei Zhengfu, a Communist Party official in Chongqing who starred
in a sex video that eventually got him fired
<http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/11/23/sex-video-fells-official-in-
latest-internet-takedown/>.
 

3. Free CGC:

Blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng’s dark sunglasses first gained
traction as a symbol of resistance in China in the second half of 2011,
when Mr. Chen’s supporters began postingphotos
<http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/10/20/social-media-helps-china-act
ivists-score-victory-for-blind-lawyer/> of themselves wearing sunglasses
on Sina Weibo and other sites to protest his illegal home confinement. But
the meme didn’t really take off until April this year, when Mr. Chen
staged a highly improbable escape from his heavily guarded house and
somehow made his way into the U.S. Embassy in Beijing
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304020104577384253042010624.
html>. Soon there was a strange profusion of sunglasses in the feeds and
profile photos of Sina Weibo and Twitter users. The image was particularly
popular in Hong Kong, where protestors rendered Mr. Chen’s bespectacled
visage in the style of KFC’s Colonel Sanders on posters that read “Free
CGC” in Kentucky Fried script.
Recent Sighting: Almost nothing since Mr. Chen and his family moved to the
U.S. in May, though a few social media avatars are still sporting shades.
 

4. Liu Bo is Very Busy (刘波很忙):

NIMBY protestors scored a double victory in the Sichuanese city of Shifang
in July, scuppering plans for a molybdenum copper plant while
simultaneously giving Chinese Internet users their own version
<http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/07/09/is-this-guy-the-chinese-vers
ion-of-pepper-spraying-cop/> of the Occupy movement’s Lt. John Pike (aka
Pepper Spraying Cop). The overzealous policeman in China’s case,
identified by web sleuths as Liu Bo, was wielding a baton instead of
pepper spray, but that didn’t make him any less Photoshoppable. Posting
under the hashtag #LiuBoisVeryBusy in Chinese, Sina Weibo users published
images of the rotund Mr. Liu bearing down on a variety of victims,
including the distressed subject of Edward Munch’s “The Scream,” Chinese
track star Liu Xiang and a terrified-looking puppy
<http://img.kanzhongguo.com/dat/thumbnails/18/2012/07/06/20120706101118406_
small.jpg>.

Recent Sighting: Unlike Lt. Pike, who was called back into action a week
ago to do his thing with the University of California’s controversial new
logo 
<http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/12/some-people-like-the-n
ew-uc-logo/266171/>, Mr. Liu appears to have been encouraged by censors to
take early retirement.
 

5. Dressing Nudes (为名画穿衣):

Just because Chinese people don’t like CCTV doesn’t mean the state
broadcaster doesn’t provide the people with entertainment. On July 9,
CCTV’s news channel ran a segment on an exhibition of Italian art at the
National Museum in Beijing during which it blurred out the nether regions
of Michelangelo’s “David.” In response to “David Gate
<http://www.ministryoftofu.com/2012/07/chinese-state-tv-censors-genitals-of
-michelangelos-david-netizens-amused/>,” Internet users did their best to
help China censor other potentially offensive works of art, forcing Adam
to wear a long tie tomask his nakedness
<http://linyi.dzwww.com/tk/2012/0716/91747.html> on the ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel, using a soccer jersey tocover Eve’s breasts
<http://www.chinahexie.org.cn/a/zixun/wenhuaguanzhu/2012/0713/31212.html>
in Gustav Klimt’s portrait of the original couple and even putting a pair
of boxer shorts 
<http://www.ministryoftofu.com/2012/07/latest-chinese-internet-meme-after-c
ctvs-david-gatedressing-the-nude-in-artwork/> on the Rem Koolhaas-designed
headquarters of CCTV itself.

Recent Sighting: None, but it has to be only a matter of time before
someone decides they can’t stand the nudity in one of the headline items
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324001104578161372542969626.
html> sold during November’s Poly auction.
 

6. 62%:

You’d think no one would bother trying to put a number on something as
ineffable as national rejuvenation. You would be wrong. Speaking at a
forum in August, Yang Yiyong, head of the Social Development Research
Office inside the National Development and Reform Commission’s
Macroeconomic Research Institute, said that according the “most
scientific” analysis China was 46% of the way to national rejuvenation in
2005 and had achieved 62% of rejuvenation by 2010 (in Chinese
<http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2012-08-06/131724915366.shtml>). As the blog
Ministry of Tofu notes
<http://www.ministryoftofu.com/2012/08/new-internet-meme-china-has-complete
d-62-of-its-great-revival/>, Mr. Yang based his estimate on careful
weighing of a series of rejuvenation indicators, including economic
development, international influence and the quality of citizens’
character. The inevitable result: Internet users went on to crack wise
about all the ways in which their lives were only 62% complete.

Recent Sighting: “The great rejuvenation is already 62% complete, 0.61
doesn’t mean anything” – marketing executive Yang Yihong, responding
<http://weibo.com/1698031344/z97FN68Zy> to a new study
<http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/12/10/perception-vs-reality-charti
ng-chinas-family-value/> that put the Gini coefficient (a measure of
income inequality) for China at a stunning 0.61.
 

7. Brother Watch (表哥):

Not so much a meme as a cautionary tale for wayward officials across
China, “Brother Watch” refers to Yang Dacai, former head of Shaanxi
province’s work-safety bureau, who was fired for disciplinary violations
after Internet users dug up photos of him sporting a collection of luxury
watches 
<http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/09/22/time-runs-out-for-watch-wear
ing-brother/> that would strain the wallet of a Wall Street executive.
Since then Internet users have gone on to expose a variety of abuses,
financial and otherwise
<http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-12/10/content_16000736.htm>, by
local officials in a trend that even state-run media have hailed
<http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/748765.shtml> as a positive development.
 

8. Are you happy? (你幸福吗?):

Another gift to the Internet from CCTV, the “Are you happy?” meme takes
its name from a national day holiday “news” feature in which CCTV
reporters in various parts of the country went around asking people if
they felt good about their lives. While the premise alone was bound to get
the story mocked online, it was the execution that really sold it as meme
material. Rather than direct the question at happy-looking people – as one
would expect a state-run TV station eager to promote the idea of a happy
China to do – several of the reporters decided instead to put their
microphones in front of some of the country’s have-nots. Among them: a
73-year-old scrap collector, later proclaimed a hero by social media
users, who mocked the question bypretending not to be able to hear the
reporter <http://globalvoicesonline.org/2012/10/10/china-are-you-happy/>.

Recent Sighting: Undeterred by the online guffaws, CCTV brought the
question back in a one-on-one interview
<http://weibo.com/2239683257/zasHIqO9P> with Mo Yan, this year’s winner of
the Nobel Prize for Literature. His answer: I don’t know.

 
9. Insufficient theoretical preparations (理论准备不足):

A lot of Chinese people are willing to accept the idea that China isn’t
ready for democracy. Where commentators go wrong is when they try to
explain why. Martial arts star Jackie Chan found that out the hard way in
2009, when he was ripped apart online for telling reporters he thought
Chinese people “need to be controlled
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/chinese-shouldnt-get-more-fre
edom-says-jackie-chan-1671337.html>.” In October, Mr. Chan was joined by
Gong Fangbin, a professor at the People’s Liberation Army National Defense
University, who argued in a commentary for the People’s Daily website that
China wasn’t afraid of democracy, but that political reform couldn’t go
forward because of “insufficient theoretical preparations.” As with the
“62%” meme, Internet users immediately seized on the phrase as a way to
excuse their personal failures. “I’m not afraid of marriage; I’m just not
ready theoretically,” wrote one microblogger
<http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/10/12/chinas-new-catch-all-excuse-
insufficient-theoretical-preparations/>.

Recent Sighting: “In our country, the present conditions are not mature
enough! We’re not theoretically prepared! The transfer of officials’
assets has not yet been completed!” – lawyer Wang Yongqiang, reacting
<http://weibo.com/1064497297/z6Qk5exYt> to news in late November that
Vietnam plans to require officials to publicize their assets.
 

10. Aircraft carrier style (航母-style / 走你-style):

On Nov. 25, a year and a half after China’s first aircraft carrier began
sea trials, CCTV broadcast footage showing a Chinese fighter jet landing
on and taking off from
<http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/11/27/china-aircraft-carrier-style
-what-first-takeoff-and-landing-means/> the carrier for the first time.
Included in the footage was a shot of two “shooters” giving the same
launch signal – squatting on one leg, right arm extended – made famous by
the film “Top Gun.” In a meme named after Gangnam style but more
reminiscent of planking
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304906004576371770200241238.
html>, inspired Internet users promptly flooded social media sites with
photos 
<http://www.ministryoftofu.com/2012/11/aircraft-carrier-style-chinese-netiz
ens-celebrate-landing-of-carrier-based-fighter-with-funny-looking-pose/>
of themselves mimicking the shooter signal – some dressed to look like the
launch officers 
<http://www.chinanews.com/tp/hd2011/2012/11-27/U334P4T426D151503F16470DT201
21127140804.jpg>, and others not so much
<http://stock.591hx.com/images/hnimg/201211/28/9/14340651674248168273.jpg>.

Recent Sighting: Pretty much everyone has gotten in on the act over the
past couple weeks, from basketball cheerleaders
<http://upload.northnews.cn/2012/1129/1354145023818.jpg> to doctors
<http://edu.gmw.cn/2012-11/30/content_5861774.htm> to the tiger
<http://bbs.tiexue.net/post_6435006_1.html> from Ang Lee’s “Life of Pi.”
Not every attempt has met with success, however
<http://twitter.yfrog.com/0483wg>.

– Josh Chin. Follow him on Twitter @joshchin <http://twitter.com/joshchin>