ViralWorld

2000·Early web, before YouTube

Chinese Internet slang

You might remember it as Chinese internet language

This one never had a single recording. What is known is below.

  • SourceNo single original
  • MediaNot held by ViralWorld

A whole vocabulary built to say things the filter will not let you say plainly.

The story

What this was

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.

It first appeared in 2000, during early web, before YouTube.

The same internet

Early web, before YouTube

What we know

Where it came from

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.
Keep going

Keep browsing