Jia Junpeng
Encyclopedia
Jia Junpeng was an internet meme
and catchphrase that became popular within the People's Republic of China
in 2009.
titled "Jia Junpeng, your mother is calling you home to eat" (贾君鹏你妈妈喊你回家吃饭) appeared on the Chinese portal Baidu
in the forum for the game World of Warcraft
at 10:59 a.m on 16 July 2009. The body of the thread content consisted of only 2 letters, namely RT , an abbreviation that simply means "as the title suggests". The poster used the IP
address of "222.94.255.***"; his identity and motivation are unknown.
After six hours, it attracted more than 17,000 replies from 400,000 viewers, most of whom were young people. Some forum users who joined in with replies had changed their user names to "Jia Junpeng’s dad", "Jia Junpeng’s grandpa", "Jia Junpeng’s sister", "Jia Junpeng's dog", etc. forming a huge Jia family. Follow-up posts grew exponentially, and became more and more ridiculous and meaningless. Users doctored photos, started cyberhunts, and the rate of replies reached several thousand per second. The page registered in excess of 243,000 replies and 6 million hits by 9 pm the next day. The thread stopped when it became saturated at 1:38 pm on 20 July – the 315,649 comments received translated into 10,421 pages. The Los Angeles Times declared in September that "the catchphrase has gone viral in recent weeks."
stopped being accessible and the host, Netease
, claims it is suffering heavy losses due to competitor’s attack. Five million Chinese WoW players have been waiting and are angry. So "Jia Junpeng, your mom tells you to go home to eat" has been interpreted by the WoW players as "Netease hurry up and start the World of Warcraft
service".
Some people attribute the popularity of the meme to the childhood memories it arouses. However, some are also of the opinion that such a deep analysis is unwarranted, since they consider the "Jia Junpeng Phenomenon" to be merely kuso
culture from internet. A China Daily editorial called it "a demonstration of collective boredom."
According to one analyst, the newly popular internet phenomenon reflects some characteristics of popular culture
such as anti-intellectualism, an unwillingness to care about something's original value, confusion, a willingness to follow the crowd, decadence, and immaturity. Hu Jiqing, associate professor from the College of Journalism and Communications at Nanjing University
, said the unprecedented popularity of the post may be easily explained because the common saying "Your mother is calling you home for dinner," resonates – as young people addicted to Internet games often feel guilty about their families – and causes people to reflect.
The meme has sparked various Photoshop contest
s throughout internet forums, where the catchphrase is often photoshopped into various places, such as banners, signs in public places, or as a caption to a humorous image. Jia Junpeng's popularity is indicated by its use on T-shirts, blogs and in song. The expression has also been used by human rights activists to demand the release of a jailed legal scholar. Businesses have also sought to capitalise by using the meme: car dealer in Sichuan created a banner that read: "Jia Junpeng, your mom is calling you to drive home a Roewe 550
." One restaurant sign was spotted with the slogan: "Jia Junpeng, your mom is calling you to eat Yanjing Hotpot!"
Internet meme
The term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.-Description:...
and catchphrase that became popular within the People's Republic of China
Internet in the People's Republic of China
The first connection of the mainland of the People's Republic of China with the Internet was established on between ICA Beijing and Karlsruhe University in Germany, under the leadership of Prof. Werner Zorn and Prof. Wang Yunfeng. Since then the Internet in China has grown to host the largest base...
in 2009.
Origins
A post in ChineseChinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
titled "Jia Junpeng, your mother is calling you home to eat" (贾君鹏你妈妈喊你回家吃饭) appeared on the Chinese portal Baidu
Baidu
Baidu, Inc. , simply known as Baidu and incorporated on January 18, 2000, is a Chinese web services company headquartered in the Baidu Campus in Haidian District, Beijing, People's Republic of China....
in the forum for the game World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
at 10:59 a.m on 16 July 2009. The body of the thread content consisted of only 2 letters, namely RT , an abbreviation that simply means "as the title suggests". The poster used the IP
Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
address of "222.94.255.***"; his identity and motivation are unknown.
After six hours, it attracted more than 17,000 replies from 400,000 viewers, most of whom were young people. Some forum users who joined in with replies had changed their user names to "Jia Junpeng’s dad", "Jia Junpeng’s grandpa", "Jia Junpeng’s sister", "Jia Junpeng's dog", etc. forming a huge Jia family. Follow-up posts grew exponentially, and became more and more ridiculous and meaningless. Users doctored photos, started cyberhunts, and the rate of replies reached several thousand per second. The page registered in excess of 243,000 replies and 6 million hits by 9 pm the next day. The thread stopped when it became saturated at 1:38 pm on 20 July – the 315,649 comments received translated into 10,421 pages. The Los Angeles Times declared in September that "the catchphrase has gone viral in recent weeks."
Interpretation, reception and after-effects
According to China Hush website, World of WarcraftWorld of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
stopped being accessible and the host, Netease
NetEase
NetEase is a Chinese internet company that operates 163.com, a popular web portal which received over 546 million page views in June of 2005. The company has grown rapidly since its founding in June 1997, thanks in part to its investment in search engine technology and massively multiplayer...
, claims it is suffering heavy losses due to competitor’s attack. Five million Chinese WoW players have been waiting and are angry. So "Jia Junpeng, your mom tells you to go home to eat" has been interpreted by the WoW players as "Netease hurry up and start the World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
service".
Some people attribute the popularity of the meme to the childhood memories it arouses. However, some are also of the opinion that such a deep analysis is unwarranted, since they consider the "Jia Junpeng Phenomenon" to be merely kuso
Kuso
Kuso is the term used in East Asia for the internet culture that generally includes all types of camp and parody. In Japanese, means shit, and is often uttered as an interjection. It is considered milder than its English counterpart, more comparable to damn. It is also used to describe outrageous...
culture from internet. A China Daily editorial called it "a demonstration of collective boredom."
According to one analyst, the newly popular internet phenomenon reflects some characteristics of popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
such as anti-intellectualism, an unwillingness to care about something's original value, confusion, a willingness to follow the crowd, decadence, and immaturity. Hu Jiqing, associate professor from the College of Journalism and Communications at Nanjing University
Nanjing University
Nanjing University , or Nanking University, is one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions of higher learning in China...
, said the unprecedented popularity of the post may be easily explained because the common saying "Your mother is calling you home for dinner," resonates – as young people addicted to Internet games often feel guilty about their families – and causes people to reflect.
The meme has sparked various Photoshop contest
Photoshop contest
A Photoshop contest, or sometimes photochop contest, is an online game, in which a website or user of an Internet forum will post a starting image — usually a photograph — and ask others to manipulate the image using some kind of graphics editing software, such as Photoshop, Corel...
s throughout internet forums, where the catchphrase is often photoshopped into various places, such as banners, signs in public places, or as a caption to a humorous image. Jia Junpeng's popularity is indicated by its use on T-shirts, blogs and in song. The expression has also been used by human rights activists to demand the release of a jailed legal scholar. Businesses have also sought to capitalise by using the meme: car dealer in Sichuan created a banner that read: "Jia Junpeng, your mom is calling you to drive home a Roewe 550
Roewe 550
The Roewe 550 is a car produced by Roewe in the People's Republic of China launched at the April 2008 Beijing Motor Show. The 550 is reported to be derived from the MG Rover RDX60 project which was under development when MG Rover failed.The car, codenamed W261 during development, is the work of a...
." One restaurant sign was spotted with the slogan: "Jia Junpeng, your mom is calling you to eat Yanjing Hotpot!"
See also
- List of internet phenomena
- Internet in the People's Republic of ChinaInternet in the People's Republic of ChinaThe first connection of the mainland of the People's Republic of China with the Internet was established on between ICA Beijing and Karlsruhe University in Germany, under the leadership of Prof. Werner Zorn and Prof. Wang Yunfeng. Since then the Internet in China has grown to host the largest base...
- Very erotic very violentVery erotic very violentVery erotic very violent is a Chinese internet meme that originated from a news report on China Central Television's flagship Xinwen Lianbo program allegedly quoting a schoolgirl describing a web page...
- Baidu 10 Mythical Creatures