spicy chinese memes for english-speaking teens

February 2, 2018 8:01 PM

I'm a Chinese heritage speaker in my 20s. I'm trying to learn Chinese again and I know I learn best by trying to decode pop culture, wordplay, weird Internet culture, and yes, dank memes. I loved Magpie Digest's dispatches from the Weibo deep web, the music videos from Rap of China, and the inimitable Karma's a Bitch. Are there any other Chinese pop culture explainers out there, preferably with a language-learning focus?

By "heritage speaker," I mean that my speaking and listening skills are okay (maybe at second grade level) and that I can barely read or write (yet).

If someone's subtitled or translated the dialogue or songs from "Rap of China," that would be exactly what I'm looking for. Another thing I've tried is watching episodes of a show that I'm familiar with (e.g. "Steven Universe") translated into Chinese.

I'd love to partake in some kind of cultural meme cross-contamination with Chinese teens: my best of Twitter for your best of Weibo.

posted by icosahedron to Writing & Language (1 answer total)

What's on Weibo does a good job of highlighting the Weibo zeitgeist, it's a few posts a week. But it's aimed entirely at English speakers, you'd be on your own to follow up with Chinese language.
posted by Nelson at 8:11 AM on February 3, 2018