Chinese Internet slang

There is no original to identify: this spread through many separate posts at once rather than from a first one. ViralWorld holds no copy of it either — what it was, when it spread and what people called it is the record.

Nothing here is claimed to be the first version of this, because research established there was not one — it appeared in many places at once.

Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.

What happens

Homophone substitution, numeric shorthand and deliberate misspelling used across the Chinese internet — partly play, partly a working method for discussing what moderation removes. One of the largest bodies of internet language outside English, and largely invisible to it.