World News
Chinese users ROAR!! on the Internet
Published: May 31, 2011 at 3:17 PM
By Xixi
QUAN, Written for UPI
Internet
censorship hasn't stopped Chinese users from finding ways to express themselves
- and loudly.
The latest is the “roar
style,”an exclamation-laden, all-caps writing style
that has invaded online pop culture in that country. It describes a way of
writing with exclamation marks and repetitive phrases such as “is there
not?!!!” and “am I right?!!!!!”
Fans of the style say it started in late 2009 on Douban.com, a Chinese user
review site for movies, books and music. It began as a digital homage to the TV
actor Ma Jingtao, who is famous for his melodramatic acting style, and for
shouting his lines in almost all his TV appearances. The founder of
Douban.com's “Roar Group”
declined to comment.
The vernacular went viral in March after its most famous example, “You cannot afford to hurt people who study French!!!!!!!!!!! Ah!!!
Ah!!!!!!”was posted on RenRen, China's version of
Facebook, by user Li Ke.
Ma Jingtao recently created a micro-blog, dedicated to “all the people who like to roar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
The blog gained more than 100,000 fans in just two days.
Roar style has become an online vehicle for people to complain or vent their
frustrations, said Hu Yong, an associate professor at the School of Journalism
and Communication at Peking University.
“Censorship of the internet in China leaves little space for sharp criticism,
partially as a result of which, the roar style emerged in a spoof sense, and is
the biggest feature of internet slang in China,” he said. “Essentially, the roar style is a way of releasing dissatisfaction.”
Qiu Zeqi, a sociology professor at Peking University, described it as its own
“cyber culture.”
“Online, people ... express and talk with fewer words and stronger emotions,” he said. “Because of the large number of
exclamations and interjections, the roar style seems to be the best choice,
which can be used to relieve intense stress in modern world.”
The style has continued to spread on RenRen, and has migrated into text
messaging and e-mail.
It has even moved into commercial advertising and university classrooms.The
Dinghao Electronic Supermarket in Beijing uses the style in grocery ads. A
professor at Wuhan University in Hubei Province employs the style in class
assignments, said He Xiaoyu, a student at the school.
Peng Mei, a journalist with the South Media Group says many of her colleagues
have picked up the roaring habit.
“One of my girlfriends tells me she feels good when saying ‘Ni ma!!!’ every
time," she said.
Ni ma literally translates to “your mother”in Chinese, and has become a favorite epithet within the style,
according to “Tips to Make Roar Writing,”posted on The
Roar Group's micro-blog site.
Real estate clerk Chen Yongjin said he discovered the roar style last year and
finds it “humorous, like other popular things” on the
Internet.
But not everyone is a fan.
“I’m against the roar style,”says Shen Yang, planner of
the National Standard of Punctuation, and a professor in the Chinese Language
and Literature department of Peking University.
“According to the national standard, the maximum number
of exclamatory marks is three, so the roar style should not be promoted,
especially in formal publication,” Yang said.
How long the trend will last is anyone's guess, according to Peng Mei.
“The Web site is so active now in China, but everyday new fashions appear and
disappear,” she said.
In fact, there already are new writing styles emerging, including Zhiyin style,
in which users imitate a Reader's Digest-like magazine called Zhiyin, and
Taobao style, through which users mimic salespeople on China's biggest shopping
website.