About

Asian Man Singing in the Snow refers to a viral video of a shaven Asian man performing the Chinese song Yi Jian Mei while rotating in the snow and filming himself. The video went viral with edits on Instagram in late March 2020, gaining mainstream popularity in early May 2020. The clip is also known as Xue Hua Piao Piao after the lyrics of the song performed by the man. In many examples, the original 2010 performance of the song by Fei Yu-ching plays over unrelated images and videos of people singing and led to a trap remix of the song that became popular on TikTok in May 2020.

Origin

Prior to January 20th, 2020, Kuaishou^[1] user zaq13520000789 (Chinese actor Zhang Ai-Qin, often referred to as "Chinese Eggman") posted a video of himself rotating in the snow while singing Chinese song "Yi Jian Mei" ("Spray of Plum Blossoms"). On February 1st, 2020, YouTube user Buhj uploaded the clip to YouTube^[2] as "Chinese man in da snow," with the video gaining over 69,700 views in three months. A February 3rd upload by YouTube^[3] user Haonslegne received over 180,000 views (higher quality reupload shown below).

Prior to January 20th, 2020, an unknown user posted a "This Collab Needs to Happen in 2020" shitpost which used the video. On January 20th, 2020, the video was reuploaded to YouTube^[4] where it received over 1,500 views in four months (reupload shown below). A January 22nd reupload by Instagram^[5] user shag.if received over 14,100 views in four months, while a January 25th repost by iFunny^[6] user LankanPork gained over 2,900 smiles.

Precursor

On December 1st, 2019, Instagram^[7] user squidysgalaxy posted a video of an unidentified Kuaishou user with a wide neck which received 42,900 views and 7,600 likes. The video received viral spread online in the following months,^[8] often used in combination with the zaq13520000789's clip.

Spread

On January 25th, 2020, iFunny^[9] user Fede made a "This Collab Needs to Happen in 2020" shitpost which combined the videos with each other, gaining over 3,000 smiles in four months (shown below).

The video did not see significant further spread until in late March 2020 it gained popularity in edits on Instagram. On March 29th, 2020, Instagram^[10] user _bluch_ posted an edit in which the man's singing was replaced with the original performance of the song by the Taiwanese singer Fei Yu-ching (shown below). The meme received over 1,600 views and 350 likes and has been reused by other users in further edits.^[11]

The meme reached mainstream popularity in mid-may 2020 with viral edits shared on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. In many examples of the meme, the original performance of the song by Fei Yu-ching plays over unrelated images and videos of people singing.

Trap Remix And Deep-fried TikToks

On May 26th, 2020, TikToker @spalding_ uploaded a trap remix of Yu-Ching Fei's 2010 song "Yi Jian Mei"^[13] and created a trend using the remix by deep-frying the punchline of his joke, similar to the deep-fried conversations trend. His video gained over 641,900 likes in two weeks (shown below, left). On May 28th, TikToker @yoloswagmia used the sound clip in a similar way and garnered over 290,500 likes in 12 days (shown below, center). On June 2nd, TikToker @polo.boyy uploaded another example that received over 221,700 likes in a week (shown below, right). StayHipp^[12] published an article on the TikTok trend.

Various Examples

External References