2023 Chinese Internet Memes

Forget the gym, forget productivity — City Walk is the 2023 Chinese trend of aimlessly wandering your own city like a tourist who forgot to book anything. Armed with a good playlist and zero agenda, participants rediscover local streets, alleys, and cafés at a leisurely pace. It's equal parts aesthetic Instagram fodder and genuine exhale from hustle culture, rebranding 'going for a walk' as a bold lifestyle statement.

When Chinese Gen-Z calls something '抽象' (abstract), they don't mean Picasso — they mean 'this situation is so bizarre, chaotic, or unhinged that normal logic no longer applies.' It's the verbal equivalent of a shrug emoji crossed with an existential breakdown. Emerging around 2023, used to roast a friend's wild life choices, describe a surreal news story, or cope with the sheer absurdity of modern existence. Think 'cursed,' 'unhinged,' and 'deeply unreal' rolled into one tidy word.

"Ěr bīn" is a cutesy, affectionate shorthand for Harbin (哈尔滨), the icy northeastern city that became China's surprise tourism darling in winter 2023. Chinese netizens, charmed by Harbin's over-the-top hospitality and dazzling ice sculptures, started calling it "尔滨" — a playful, almost teasing nickname, like calling a celebrity by a pet name. The city itself leaned into the hype, and the meme became a love letter from the internet to a city that finally got its moment in the spotlight.

In spring 2023, the small city of Zibo in Shandong province became an overnight sensation when its distinctive street BBQ — thin flatbreads, grilled meat, and spring onions eaten at small personal grills — went viral. Young people flooded in by the trainload, turning a humble local snack into a national pilgrimage. 'Zibo BBQ' became shorthand for grassroots joy, affordable indulgence, and the kind of wholesome chaos that briefly unites the Chinese internet.

A '搭子' is your designated partner for one specific activity — your lunch buddy, your gym buddy, your 'someone to complain about work with' buddy. Emerging around 2023, unlike a full friend, a "搭子" relationship carries zero emotional maintenance costs. You grab bubble tea together, you part ways, no one texts at midnight about their feelings. It's friendship with terms and conditions, and Gen-Z is absolutely here for it.

Named after a tragic scholar character in a Lu Xun short story, this meme captures the plight of over-educated, under-employed young Chinese people who feel trapped by their degrees. Emerging around 2023, just like the fictional Kong Yiji — too proud to do manual labor, too powerless to rise — these graduates joke darkly that their diplomas are both a badge of honor and a pair of handcuffs they can't take off.

A sentence structure meaning 'the main thing is [X]' or 'leading with [X].' Exploded across Chinese social media as a template for describing the defining quality of anything: "主打一个不在乎" (leading with not caring), "主打一个真实" (the main thing is being real), "主打一个随缘" (going with the flow is the vibe). Emerging around 2023, it's both a description and a statement of intent — this is the energy I'm bringing.

"遥遥领先" (Far Ahead / Dominating) is Huawei executive Richard Yu's (余承东) signature catchphrase, used relentlessly at product launches to describe Huawei's technological superiority. Emerging around 2023, every time Yu took the stage to announce a new product — a phone, a chip, a car system — he would punctuate each feature reveal with a thunderous '遥遥领先!' (far ahead!), complete with dramatic pauses for audience applause. The phrase's repetition was so predictable and over-the-top that it became a meme. The term perfectly captured the nationalist pride and technological ambition of China's tech sector at a moment when Huawei was positioned as the national champion battling US sanctions. But it also lent itself to endless parody: netizens began applying "遥遥领先" to everything from their instant noodles ('this flavor is "遥遥领先"!') to their romantic prowess, from workplace achievements to mundane daily victories. The phrase's versatility — sincere patriotism, self-deprecating humor, ironic flexing — made it one of 2023's most productive meme formats.