Can memes be universal across all cultures?

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"Meme" is an idea, behavior or style that spreads like a virus on the Internet. The term was coined by British biologist Richard Dawkins in 1976.

Now, memes can be found anywhere and has become a widespread cultural item across the world.

According to Internet Live Stats, the globe now has more than 3.6 billion multilingual Internet users so far. Based on such a large population, memes provide a better way for people to understand and communicate with others online regardless of language.

CGTN picks some of the most trending English memes that have emerged so far this year and attempts to find their Chinese counterparts.

1. Salt Bae

Turkish chef Nusret Gökçe uploaded his video on Instagram in January 2017, displaying himself flamboyantly sprinkling salt on a carved steak. The video earned him the nickname “Salt Bae”–“Bae” being short for “babe”, or someone you’ve got a crush on.

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Similar in China: Noodle Bro

Noodle vendor Tian Bo in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, became an overnight online celebrity in February 2017. In a hit video, Tian can be seen dancing and spinning along with music while making a long noodle. People were amazed by his incredible performance, given him a nickname “Noodle Bro.”

Dancing is better than stretching noodle. /Picture via Internet

Fly with me. /Picture via Internet

Afraid of loving me? /Picture via Internet

2. White Guy Blinking

The GIF of this man blinking his eyes was taken from an episode of a gaming show filmed in 2013. The image of this guy came back in a grand way, unexpectedly gaining huge popularity on the Internet not until February 2017. The man behind the meme is Drew Scanlon, a video producer of a gaming website.

Picture via Internet

Examples:

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Similar in China: Confused Nick Young

The meme of Nick Young, the renowned NBA athlete, hit Chinese social media in 2016, a year later than the overseas Internet. Young’s GIF was derived from a video featuring his daily life. When his mother claims he was “a clown,” the basketball player makes this disbelief facial expression.

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Weibo user @chongzhixiansheng: Just a try (to photoshop the image's background). Nick Young: ??? /Screenshot

Weibo user @xiaoanianer: My dad told me he kept the watermelon months ago for me (to eat). (Confused Nick Young)??? /Screenshot

3. “Hey, this is library!”

A student who stood up to noisy anti-Trump protesters chanting “Who’s got the power” at a library in University of Washington went viral in January 2017, with people praising the young man for maintaining the peace and quiet of the place for study.

The student shut the protesters down, saying "Hey, this is library!" /Screenshot

The protesters /Screenshot

Examples:

Twitter user made sticker with the meme as caption. /Screenshot

Netizen adapted the meme in different situation. /Screenshot

Similar in China: “If you don’t have a pretty face, study harder.”

Tang Gong, a senior student at China’s prestigious Tsinghua University, received six offers from top US universities in 2015. During an interview, the girl joked that, “I am really not a studying person. But since I don’t have a pretty face, it drives me to study every time I look at a mirror.”

Tang Gong /hsw.cn

The meme's sticker /Picture via Internet

The couplet above the blackboard writes “If you’re overweight, exercise more. If you don’t have a pretty face, study harder.” /Screenshot

“If you don’t have a pretty face, work harder.” /Picture via Internet

4. Shooting Stars

“Shooting Stars” is a song-based meme that can easily get stuck in your head. It was released by the Australian music duo "Bag Raiders" in 2008 and rose to fame in January 2017, remixed with footage of an overweight man jumping into the water trending on YouTube.

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Similar in China: Drinking Alone By Myself

Released in 2015, the song was a product of mic-shouting, a specialized rap-like genre of northeast China.

“Drinking Alone By Myself” gained popularity with the development of China’s live stream industry, as many web-anchors from China’s northeastern regions prefer to sing the song.

The song, however, was remixed on the basis of the well-known piano music – River Flows in You – by South Korean pianist Yiruma.

The meme became familiar with the public on September 2016 when a user of Bilibili, a Chinese video-sharing platform that mainly caters to young people, uploaded a video using the song as background music. The video has been watched over 5.65 million times so far.

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5. Mulan Szechuan Sauce

A dipping sauce missing for nearly 20 years thrust was into the limelight in April 2017, with the broadcast of the new season of US high-rating animation, Rick and Morty.

In 1998, McDonald’s offered a limited Sichuan flavor sauce as a promotion for the release of Disney’s film Mulan.

The nugget-themed sauce was mentioned 19 years later by the cartoon’s main character, Rick Sanchez, as he is obsessed with the sauce. Many people requested the giant fast food company to bring back their favorite taste.

Photo via Internet

Similar in China: Beef Wrap

Beef Wrap was a product of KFC that caters to the taste of Chinese customers. But it was taken down from the menu five years ago. On China’s Quora-like platform, Zhihu, more than 2,900 users hoped the dish could be back on the menu.

In May 2017, a three-day event of serving Beef Wrap to public was held across China’s KFC which triggered warm welcome online.

Photo via Internet

Looking through the memes above, we can see both China and English-speaking countries can share similar memes, from stickers to Internet slang, from music to food. The cultural item has become a universal language, linking people from different cultural backgrounds together.

Admittedly, as a cultural product, memes can seldom be appreciated by people all over the world. Memes like the Confused Nick Young and the song Thug Life are rare cases because they both circulated online in China and other English countries.

Do you use memes for online chatting? Do you use any English or Chinese memes online? Share with us!