About

Lao-tzu Writing, "Yi Jian Mei" Remixes or Old Asian Man Writing, refers to a painting of the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu (Laozi) writing calligraphy, which is used as a reaction or image macro meme on TikTok alongside the Chinese song "Yi Jian Mei" (the same music featured in the Xue Hua Piao Piao meme). Lao-tzu's writing memes, part of the slow fade-in irony meme trend, went viral in mid-March 2024 and are often paired with jokes and POV memes about relatable interactions, especially sarcastic, with Chinese and Japanese culture, such as "the feeling when the Chinese waitress hands me chopsticks but hands the rest of my friends forks."

Origin

Although the artist behind the painting of Lao-tzu Writing Calligraphy is unknown, photographer Pascal Deloche is credited as the earliest person to upload the painting online via the stock image website Getty Images^[1] on June 3rd, 2016 (shown below).

The earliest memetic use of the painting was posted by TikTok^[2] user @arch3bald on March 19th, 2024. The post is paired with the caption "how I feel when I eat cheap ramen using chopsticks and boiled egg with green onion on top" and the Chinese song "Yi Jian Mei." The post (shown below) amassed over 1 million likes in three days.

Spread

Over the next few days in mid-to-late March 2024, several ironic memes about Chinese and Japanese culture using both the Lao-tzu painting and the song "Yi Jian Mei" were popularized on TikTok.

For example, on March 20th, 2024, TikTok^[3] user @thedrowning_horse posted a POV meme in which the Lao-tzu painting represents what they feel when "the Chinese waitress hands me chopsticks but hands the rest of my friends forks." The post (shown below, left) amassed more than 3.8 million plays and 932,000 likes in a day.

Also on March 20th, TikTok^[4] user @yurlouise used the meme template paired with the macro "how I feel after accidentally switching to the Japanese keyboard when texting because 2020 me wanted those cute Japanese keyboard emojis." The post (shown below, right) garnered over 700,000 plays and 209,000 likes in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References