The Ordinary, the Artistic and the Idiotic (Putong, Wenyi and Erbi) – the hottest Internet meme happening now in China
It all started just like any other Internet memes. Some folks on the internets posted a series of composite photos, each consisting of three images of some young people. From left to right, or top to bottom, the three images would respectively represent
- An ordinary youth (putong qingnian, 普通青年),
- An artistic youth (wenyi qingnian, 文艺青年, a young person of artistic and cultural sensibility, or rather, of quasi-hipster quality)
- And finally, (much to a humorously dramatic effect) an idiotic youth (erbi qingnian, 二逼青年), who would perform some funny, non-sequester or socially awkward deeds.
The meme got so popular that not only has it gained its own Chinese acronym 普文二 (pu-wen-er), it soon evolved into a more concise form: a simple sequence of three items (photos or phrases) under the same category put together would suffice to deliver a joke of the same nature and immediately be understood by friends within your online social circle.
As a result, the past few days saw an explosive creation of wu-wen-er trios spreading across major Chinese social network websites such as Sina Weibo and Renren.com.
So without further ado, below is a collection of many cleverly devised pu-wen-er photos for your entertainment. (Sources:gouleide.com, shangdu.com, Baidu Tieba)
From left to right: the ordinary youth, the artistic youth and the idiotic young cellist
The ordinary, artistic and idiotic Captain Sparrow
Jack Ma, in his ordinary, artistic and idiotic forms.
Three different ways of parking your car
Pu-wen-er WoW
Translate: (after love making ends prematurely): The ordinary boyfriend: sorry honey…
The artistic (sensitive) boyfriend: Sorry. I can hardly control myself with you.
The idiotic boyfriend: That felt darn good huh?
Pu-wen-er Zhu Bajie
Now, can you come up with an ordinary-artistic-idiotic combination of your own?
the first cellist is my friend at renda~~~ he’s funny LOL
[...] posts a collection of funny pictures which reflect the three stereotype images of Chinese youth – the ordinary, the artistic and the idiotic. [...]
These are all fantastic.
Some of them look idiotic in all three pictures…
shift from classification of virtuous,produtive person,lazy parasite to ordinary,artistic and idiot.
[...] التي تعكس الثلاث صور النمطية للشباب الصينيين – العادي، الفنان، والأحمق. [...]
Wow these are awesome! Love the noodles one and the apple-taped-to-the-computer.