“Losers” “Acting Gay”: Internet Slang, Memes, and Affective Intensities

Szablewicz, Marcella

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-36111-2_6

Marcella Szablewicz⁴

Part of the book series: East Asian Popular Culture ((EAPC))

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Abstract

This chapter moves beyond the realm of digital games to investigate the larger affective sphere cultivated by the social relations surrounding digital gaming culture in urban China. Through a consideration of various elements of digital leisure culture on display at ChinaJoy, China’s largest digital gaming and entertainment expo, this chapter shows how memes, Internet slang, and other artifacts of digital leisure culture serve as outlets for affective intensities—shared, embodied, and actively felt states of being that thrive on the Internet, but that nonetheless defy articulation and fixed interpretation. In particular, I focus upon memes and slang terms that playfully challenge the heteronormative model of ideal citizenship and patriotic leisure discussed in Chap. 4.

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Notes

1.
For an explanation of economic function of gamer guilds, see Zhang and Fung, “Working as Playing?”; At ChinaJoy, gamer guilds visit different game stalls to promote new game titles to their members.
2.
See Niko Partners, “ChinaJoy 2015 Recap” and Niko Partners, “ChinaJoy 2019”; in 2019, ChinaJoy boasted 364,700 entries.
3.
The FFF Group, an online collective inspired by a storyline in the popular anime Baka and Test, has been described as a group of “couple haters” who police and punish those in successful heteronormative relationships.
4.
See Phillips, Can’t Have Nice Things; LULZ is a bastardization of the acronym LOL, or laugh out loud. Unlike LOL, LULZ usually refer to a particular kind of cynical or mean-spirited laughter, often at someone else’s expense. LULZ is the calling card of trolls.
5.
Rojek, Labour of Leisure, 1, emphasis in original.
6.
Orwell, “Funny, but not Vulgar.”
7.
Papacharissi, Affective Publics, 95, 107.
8.
Rofel, “Yearnings,” 705.
9.
Papacharissi, Affective Publics, 114.
10.
Williams, Marxism and Literature, 132.
11.
Williams, 132.
12.
Ahmed, Cultural Politics of Emotions, 4.
13.
See “Hitler’s ‘Downfall’ Parodies.”
14.
Paasonen, “A Midsummer’s Bonfire,” 28.
15.
Xu, “Diaosi shenshang.”
16.
Diaosi nadian shi.
17.
Xu, “Diaosi shenshang.”
18.
Yaoi, also known as “Boys’ Love,” is a particular subgenre of Japanese manga that features romantic relationships between two young male protagonists. Notably, in many of these tales, the two men do not overtly identify as homosexual. This subgenre has gained limited popularity in China, and is often read by females, who are known as “Rotten Girls” or funü.
19.
“Gaoji,” Baidu Baike.
20.
There is no direct English translation for the Chinese term kaihei but, according to gamer forums, the phrase refers to the process of creating a team of players who are closely connected through either physical location (playing in the same Internet café, for example) or voice chat platforms such as YY. This custom-built team maintains close contact among members and generally has an advantage over teams that were randomly selected or matched up by the computer. Most specifically, the phrase may be a reference to the black lobby window that appears when players attempt to create a custom team/game.
21.
Wei Wei, “Good Gay Buddies,” 24.
22.
Tencent Global Esports Arena, Lu you Pai ; It is worth noting that the Chinese nickname for the real-time strategy game League of Legends is LOL, also rendered as lu a lu. In Chinese, the term lu means to “tug” or “pull,” but it has become a slang reference to the act of masturbation. As such, the act of playing the game itself is equated with loser culture and its emphasis on young men’s inability to find a sexual partner.
23.
“Zhei bo zhen bu kui,” Lu you Pai.
24.
Peng, “Luohun.”
25.
Silbert, “China Ditty ‘Little Apple.’”
26.
Tengxun yule, “Jiemi Kuaizi Xiongdi.”
27.
Powell, “Gender Imbalance.”
28.
See Jin, “Cong zhongchan dao diaosi”; Li and Tang, “Zoujin ‘diaosi’”; Yang et al., “Diaosi as Infrapolitics.”
29.
Yang et al., “Diaosi as Infrapolitics.”
30.
Messner and de Oca, “Male Consumer as Loser,” 1882.
31.
Shifman, Memes in Digital Culture, 77.
32.
Lu, True Story of Ah-Q.
33.
Tan, “Diaosi chuan.”
34.
Xu, “Diaosi shenshang.”
35.
Zheng, “Masculinity in Crisis,” 347.
36.
Zheng, 347.
37.
Evans, “Sexed Bodies,” 361.
38.
Louie, Theorising Chinese Masculinity, 4.
39.
Phillips, Can’t Have Nice Things.
40.
Douglas, “Internet Ugly Aesthetic.”
41.
Smith, The Joy of Pain.
42.
For a full discussion of Furong Jiejie and her rise to fame, see Guo, “Eyes of the Internet.”
43.
Guo, “Eyes of the Internet,” 160.
44.
Marwick, Status Update.
45.
Liu, “Hush! BBStar Sister Furong.”
46.
On the Chinese Internet, stories of corrupt officials and their children abound. Many of these, like the story of one spoiled young man who struck and killed a woman on a college campus only to claim that he was above the law because his dad worked for the police force, have become the source of viral memes (My dad is Li Gang!).
47.
One notable scandal making headlines around the same time as the diaosi was the investigation of Zhou Yongkang, then a senior leader in the CCP. Zhou and his family were accused and later found guilty of taking millions in bribes. Chinese netizens discussed the disgraced leader, whose name was promptly censored, using the instant noodle brand Master Kang (Kang Shifu) and later simply “instant noodles” (fangbian mian).
48.
Taylor, “Play Globally, Act Locally,” 236.
49.
Sudén and Sveningsson, Passionate Play, 48.
50.
Sudén and Sveningsson, 49.
51.
Wu, Fore, Wang, and Ho, “Beyond Virtual Carnival and Masquerade.”
52.
Huang, “Qianxi ‘diaosi wenhua’”; wood ear is a type of edible fungus common in Chinese cuisine.
53.
Hammaren and Johanssen, “Homosociality,” 1; Sedgwick, Between Men.
54.
Yang et al., “Diaosi as Infrapolitics.”
55.
Papacharissi, “Affective Publics.”
56.
Stockton, The Queer Child, 4.
57.
Halberstam, Queer Art of Failure, 89.
58.
The creation of the State Internet Information Office was announced in May 2011. Seen as indicative of Xi Jinping’s desire to crack down on Internet expression, the Internet Information office’s role is to “coordinate and supervise online content management” (Xinhua, May 4, 2011).
59.
Chen, “‘Wangluo disu yuyan diaocha.’”
60.
“Shi Yuzhu tuandui fa leiren baogao.”
61.
Hebdige, Subculture, 96.
62.
Zhang and Barreda, “Are China’s Losers.”
63.
Xu, “Diaosi shenshang.”
64.
Beauchamp, “Incel.”
65.
“FFF Inquisition,” Baka to Test Shoukanjuu Wiki [in English]; “FFF tuan,” Baidu Baike [in Chinese].
66.
Chen, “FFF tuan beyi.”
67.
BBC News, “Elliot Rodger.”
68.
Jenkins, “Counterpublics.”

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Pace University, New York, NY, USA
Marcella Szablewicz

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Szablewicz, M. (2020). “Losers” “Acting Gay”: Internet Slang, Memes, and Affective Intensities. In: Mapping Digital Game Culture in China. East Asian Popular Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36111-2_6

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36111-2_6
Published: 19 February 2020
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-36110-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-36111-2
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