Internet slang is a non-standard or unofficial form of language used by people on the Internet to communicate to one another. An example of Internet slang is "LOL" meaning "laugh out loud". Since Internet slang is constantly changing, it is difficult to provide a standardized definition. However, it can be understood to be any type of slang that Internet users have popularized, and in many cases, have coined. Such terms often originate with the purpose of saving keystrokes or to compensate for small character limits. Many people use the same abbreviations in texting, instant messaging, and social networking websites. Acronyms, keyboard symbols, and abbreviations are common types of Internet slang. New dialects of slang, such as leet or Lolspeak, develop as ingroup Internet memes rather than time savers. Many people also use Internet slang in face-to-face, real life communication.
China has been on the Internet intermittently since May 1989 and on a permanent basis since 20 April 1994, although with heavily filtered access. In 2008, China became the country with the largest population on the Internet and, as of 2023, has remained so. As of July 2023, 1.05 billion use internet in China.
The Chinese Wikipedia is the written vernacular Chinese edition of Wikipedia. It is run by the Wikimedia Foundation. Started on 11 May 2001, the Chinese Wikipedia currently has 1,376,976 articles and 3,397,653 registered users, of whom 65 have administrative privileges.
Baidu, Inc. is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in Internet-related services, products, and artificial intelligence (AI), headquartered in Beijing's Haidian District. It is one of the largest AI and Internet companies in the world. The holding company of the group is incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Baidu was incorporated in January 2000 by Robin Li and Eric Xu. Baidu has origins in RankDex, an earlier search engine developed by Robin Li in 1996, before he founded Baidu in 2000.
China Digital Times is a US-based 501(c)(3) organization that runs a bilingual news website covering China. The site focuses on news items which are blocked, deleted or suppressed by China's state censors.
Kuso is a term used in East Asia for the internet culture that generally includes all types of camp and parody. In Japanese, kuso (糞,くそ,クソ) is a word that is commonly translated to English as curse words such as fuck, shit, damn, and bullshit, and is often said as an interjection. It is also used to describe outrageous matters and objects of poor quality. This usage of kuso was brought into Taiwan around 2000 by young people who frequently visited Japanese websites and quickly became an internet phenomenon, spreading to Taiwan and Hong Kong and subsequently to Mainland China.
Profanity in Mandarin Chinese most commonly involves sexual references and scorn of the object's ancestors, especially their mother. Other Mandarin insults accuse people of not being human. Compared to English, scatological and blasphemous references are less often used. In this article, unless otherwise noted, the traditional character will follow its simplified form if it is different.
Baidu Baike is a semi-regulated Chinese-language collaborative online encyclopedia owned by the Chinese technology company Baidu. The beta version was launched on April 20, 2006, and the official version was launched on April 21, 2008, edited by registered users. As of February 2022, it has 25.54 million entries and more than 7.5 million editors. It has the largest number of entries in the world of any Chinese-language online encyclopedia.
Robin Li Yanhong is a Chinese software engineer and billionaire internet entrepreneur who is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Chinese multinational technology company Baidu. As of June 2023, his net worth was estimated at US$8.6 billion by Forbes.
Baike.com, formerly Hudong and Hoodong, is a for-profit social network in Chinese, including the world's largest Chinese encyclopedia. It is one of the two largest wikis in China, along with Baidu Baike, claiming to have more than 18 million articles as of 2020 and more than 5.77 million volunteers, as of April 2013.
The Grass Mud Horse is a Chinese Internet meme and kuso parody based on a word play of the Mandarin profanity cào nǐ mā (肏你妈), which literally means "fuck your mother".
River crab and harmonious/harmonize/harmonization are Internet slang terms created by Chinese netizens in reference to the Internet censorship, or other kinds of censorship in Mainland China. In Mandarin Chinese, the word "river crab" (河蟹), which originally means Chinese mitten crab, sounds similar to "harmonious/harmonize/harmonization" in the word "harmonious society" (和谐社会), ex-Chinese leader Hu Jintao's signature ideology.
Very good very mighty is a catch phrase and internet meme in China that originated with the WoW Chinese-translation group in June 2007. Using the syntactical structure very X very Y (很X很Y) became increasingly popular among netizens of Mainland China as internet slang and snowclone.
Jia Junpeng was an internet meme and catchphrase that became popular on the Internet in China in 2009.
"Illegal flower tribute" is an Internet meme that emerged after Google's announcement of a possible exit from Mainland China in January 2010. On 12 January 2010, Google posted an article on its official Blogspot blog, entitled "A New Approach to China", in which it disclosed its decision to end compliance with the Internet censorship in China at Google.cn, citing recent politically motivated hacker attacks from China on Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists as its primary concern. Google also announced it had negotiated with the Chinese government on this issue, but no agreement or consensus on a non-censoring search engine was made, so traffic to Google.cn was re-routed to Google.com.hk.
The Yax lizard or Jacques lizard is a Chinese internet phenomenon related to the Baidu 10 Mythical Creatures. It mocks a musical dance program that excessively praised the Chinese government.
Chun Ge, which means "Brother Chun" and is often translated as "Spring Brother", is a nickname for the singer Li Yuchun, which subsequently became a popular Chinese Internet meme. In her early years as a Super Girl star, Li is known for her androgynous appearance.
Hexie Farm, by an author known as Crazy Crab, is an online political cartoon in China critical of the Chinese government. Hexie in Chinese Pinyin is a pun on harmony and river crab. The cartoon started running in August 2010, focusing on animal characters living in a "Harmonic Farm". It is loosely based on George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm.
Li Yi Bar is a subforum of the Baidu Tieba forum. The subforum was originally opened for ridiculing soccer player Li Yi. It is well known for its large number of followers, who often flood other Internet forums or subforums.
