About

Chinese Panda Reaction Images, also known as Chinese Panda Memes, refers to a series of emoticons, comics and memes shared on Chinese social media sites like WeChat and Douyin that show a cartoon panda with a human face. The panda character is referred to in Chinese as Biaoqing Panda or 熊猫人表情包, which translates in English to Panda Head. The memes first surfaced in the early 2010s on the site Baozou Manhua, directly inspired by Rage Comics shared on the American internet. Going into the 2020s, biaoqing memes continued in prevalence in China, while in the U.S., Wojaks became the dominant form of MS Paint memes. In early 2023, users on Twitter and elsewhere became increasingly aware of the Chinese panda memes, leading to discourse that compared their absurdity to that of modern Wojak memes. Many meme creators started using the Chinese Panda Wearing Oxygen Mask image most often.

Origin

The Panda Head (熊猫人表情包) meme from Chinese meme creators surfaced sometime around 2010, purportedly on the "Rage Comic" inspired website Baozou Manhua,^[1] although this is unconfirmed. This is in accordance with articles and written pieces on both American and Chinese websites alike that purport Baozou Manhu as the origin and trace a vague history of the meme's evolution.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

The panda cartoon from the meme was based on a still frame from a "Never Say No To Panda"^[7] TV commercial in which the panda mascot is in a pizza kitchen (YouTube upload shown below). The series of commercials were created by the Egyptian company Advantage Marketing for Arab Dairy, which manufactured the cheese brand Panda Cheese.^[7] The commercials aired in 2010.

From the still image (shown below, left) an unknown illustrator made the black-and-white cartoon (shown below, right), which circulated on Chinese social media around 2010.

The face that was inserted into the panda carton was the face of Korean actor Choi Sung-kook from the 2007 film Three Kims.^[8] In one scene of the film, Choi Sung-kook's character is playing Mortal Kombat with a boy whom he beats and then stands up from the TV to laugh (YouTube upload shown below).

The still image of his laughing face was inserted into the panda cartoon purportedly on the website Baozou Manhua.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} An image purportedly showing the evolution of the meme's creation was made by Zhuanlan^[2] user 那你撒个娇呀 in May 2020 (shown below).

Spread

Going into the 2010s, the Panda Head (熊猫人表情包) meme was reedited as meme creators inserted multiple human faces and accompanied the images with a bottom caption (examples shown below). For instance, the face of American professional wrestler Elijah Samuel Burke was inserted onto the panda's head. Going into the late 2010s, the meme was also discussed in threads on Twitter.^[9]

Wojak Comparisons

In early 2023, viral discourse surfaced on Twitter about the Panda Head (熊猫人表情包) memes in comparison to American Wojaks. The discourse was predominantly started on March 14th, 2023, when Twitter^[10] user @arthoefootjob tweeted a Panda Head meme with the caption, "chinese people slap their knees laughing at shit like this." The tweet received roughly 9,100 likes in one week (shown below).

A few days later, on March 19th, 2023, Chinese-speaking Twitter^[11] user @diyorchiectomy quote retweeted @arthoefootjob, attaching an abstract Wojak comic (similar to those posted to Soyjak.party) and the caption, "美国人看到类似的图片会拍膝盖大笑," which translates in English to, "Americans slap their knees and laugh when they see similar pictures." The tweet received roughly 60,100 likes in two days (shown below).

Various tweets then started to surface about Chinese panda memes and the interaction between @arthoefootjob and @diyorchiectomy. For instance, later on March 19th, Twitter^[12] user @HumbuggHere tweeted a Panda Head meme that resembled Copium with the caption, "Chinese reaction images are insane like what context do you even use this in," earning roughly 112,300 likes in two days (shown below, left). On March 20th, 2023, Twitter^[13] user @GENC____ stated that @arthoefootjob and @diyorchiectomy's interaction was top tier, earning roughly 105,900 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Screenshots of the aforementioned tweets spread to platforms like iFunny^[14][15] soon after.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References