Baozou manhua (rage comics), Internet humour and everyday life

Abstract

Wang Nima launched baozoumanhua.com in 2008 to introduce rage comics (baozou manhua) to China after noticing its popularity in the USA. The emergence of baozou manhua signifies a new form of expression for ordinary netizens where they move from simply being consumers of comics to producers, combining image and text in a humorous way and distributing them via a wide variety of communication tools. This paper examines how the genre of baozou manhua enables Chinese netizens to vent about their everyday experiences and frustrations of daily life. It also explores how computer software technology and the Internet have influenced contemporary Chinese visual humour by focusing on the baozoumanhua.com Internet community. Although baozou manhua is an Internet phenomenon emerging from the specific sociopolitical context of contemporary China, examining this form of expression not only sheds light on popular online culture in China and the issues Chinese netizens grapple with but also provides an understanding of how digital visual culture changes across time and space as North American rage faces circulate around the world and garner new meaning after being appropriated and reinterpreted in the ‘interpretative community’ of Chinese cyberspace.

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this paper was presented at ‘The Funhouse Mirror: The Making and Reception of Chinese Visual Humour Workshop’ organized by the Australian Centre on China in the World, Australian National University (18–19 October 2012). I would like to thank the workshop participants for their feedback. I am also grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions.

Notes

^1. According to the company website, they are also registered in the UK as Morrill Mocci Entertainment Ltd (Xi'an Momo Xinxi Jishu Youxian Gongsi 2013). Membership is free, but there is a commercial aspect of the website because it offers mugs, mouse pads, T-shirts and other merchandise branded with popular rage faces for sale from an affiliated online store. Wang urges fans to purchase these ‘reasonably-priced’ products to support the cost of running the server (Zhang 2012a). In April 2013, the website started promoting a print book version of the best baoman comics, priced at 18 RMB.

^2. Little Fatty became an Internet meme in 2003 when netizens superimposed photos of Qian Zhijun's face on various images, including Hollywood movie posters. Qian, then a student in Shanghai, has since become an entertainer.

^3. The names Derp and Derpina derive from the Internet slang, ‘derp’ meaning ignorant or stupid.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shih-Wen Chen

Shih-Wen Sue Chen is a lecturer in Literary Studies in the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University. She received her PhD in Literature, Screen and Theatre Studies from The Australian National University (ANU). Sue was previously a post-doctoral fellow at the Australian Centre on China in the World, ANU, adjunct assistant professor in Tamkang University, Taiwan and has also lectured in National Tsing Hua University (NTHU), Taiwan. She is the author of Representations of China in British Children's Fiction, 1851–1911 (Ashgate, 2013).