Culture and travel, sometimes cultural travel, is a popular term used in the Chinese travel sector. People travel across the country for cultural experiences, from museums to intangible cultural heritages (ICHs). The IShowSpeed trip to China is more aligned with the youth or internet culture of China, which is surprisingly compatible with the American or global one, given the divergent evolution they have undergone due to the isolation of platforms in China.
The youth or internet culture of China is surprisingly compatible with the American one
IShowSpeed, often referred to as Speed, is an American YouTuber and livestreamer, also known in China by his slightly ableist nickname “甲亢哥” (lit. “Hyperthyroidist” due to his excitable temperament. He is also well-known among football fans for his love of the game and Cristiano Ronaldo.
The revolution will be livestreamed
When Speed’s first China stream came out on 24 March, netizens to state-owned media outlets in China praised the streamer for tearing down the “Chinese filter” (中国滤镜) created by Western media. It is, fittingly, a reference to a meme, the “Mexican filter,” where Mexico and sometimes Middle Eastern countries are stereotypically portrayed on screen with a yellowish filter. Chinese filter usually refers to Western outlets such as the BBC showing China in a dull grey to indicate smog or pollution.
His first two stops, Shanghai and Beijing, are what most of these articles refer to, where Speed saw the modern skyscrapers of the cities, clean streets and uninterrupted high-speed mobile internet. Advanced transport ranged from bullet trains to EVs from Xiaomi and Huawei. This quickly earned him praise from state-owned media, saying a 20-year-old young man from the United States has “destroyed years of anti-China propaganda”. He also earned goodwill from ordinary netizens on Chinese social media. On Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, topics such as “IShowSpeed’s China trip super successful” (#甲亢哥中国行效果好到爆#) and “IShowSpeed ‘seeds’ China travel to foreigners” (#甲亢哥让外国人疯狂种草中国#) reached number 6 and number 12 on the Hot Search list, with 12.36 million and 29.97 million views, respectively.
Most importantly, the livestreams showed the world that the people of China are far from the stereotype of being quiet and demure, to the degree of being inanimate. In fact, the broadcast shows that China, at least the megacities Speed visited, contains a vibrant internet culture, just as unhinged, if not more, than its American equivalent.
The society of online spectacles
“抽象” (lit. abstract) is probably how most Chinese netizens would describe the style, especially the humour of Speed. Abstract humour generally denotes a combination of postmodern or post-irony humour and surreal or absurdist comedy. It gained traction in China in recent years, with not only comedians, influencers and memes but also in marketing campaigns. KFC’s Crazy Thursdays are a prime example of that, merging the satirical and the nonsensical.
For better or worse, the trip to China of IShowSpeed was fraught with many such moments. From sudden challenges and dance battles to borderline racist gifts like watermelons, bananas and a cotton bouquet, and of course, sudden choruses of the refrain from a popular Wowkie Zhang (大张伟, also Da Zhang Wei) tune: “nei nei neige” (那个, a filler word, lit. that) that sounds uncannily like the n-word to untrained ears. I say borderline because, in a post-irony context, they deliberately muddle the line between satire and menace, only to show a “no-holds-barred” comedy meant to provoke reactions.
Speed reacts to most of the antics with a quick wit to play along, and only on a few occasions did he deflect the situation by being utterly perplexed (such as being accosted by a self-proclaimed “racist” cosplaying as the “Saiba Momoi says the N-word” meme). However, many of these are taken out of context to show Chinese people as racist or used as a vessel to express the reposters’ racist agenda, while they were likely just trying to out-abstract IShowSpeed for their “15 minutes of fame”.
Influencers of the world, unite!
The most meme-tic episode during Speed’s journey to the East was in the city of Chongqing. The city is often called an “8D” city for its mountainous landscape and confusing horizontal structure. Speed was shocked when he thought he had descended underground, only to find himself at the top of a skyscraper. With its horizontal, maze-like nature and trains going through buildings, the city has also been called a “cyberpunk” metropolis since early last year. Fittingly, the city is also “cyber” for its vibrant internet culture. That is likely why some of the biggest collaborations took place in Chongqing. Let’s dive into the meme culture rabbit hole.
“Super Idol” is a meme song that began its life as a jingle for Watson’s bottled water but took on a life of its own as a TikTok soundtrack for 1. Being a pure earworm and 2. Meme-able moments in the ad were recreated many times, especially when the subject splashes water from the bottle in the general direction of the camera. The most widely known creator of the meme is Tian Yiming (田一名), whose version is often added to random videos and is sometimes called the “Rickroll of China”. Speed sang with Tian, and both splashed milk from a carton, trying to out-meme the meme.
In Chongqing, of course, an American streamer cannot miss the opportunity to collaborate with “Chinese Trump”, the Trump impressionist who does pitch-perfect accent work and body language without the effort of appearing blonde or artificially tanned. The two met in the back of a limousine, à la the Lennon-Dylan meeting in Eat the Document.
On the iconic Yangtze River Cableway, Speed and team looked at the neon-lit, or rather, LED-lit nightscape, in a cable car decked out in LED lights. Speed met with his brightest collaborator, Tony from LC Sign, or as some call him on Reddit, “the (Asian) LED guy”. Tony is known for his range of accent work and humorous signs. He showed his gifts to speed, from an underwhelming LED sign of “@ISHOWSPEED” to an over-the-top light with Speed and Ronaldo.
With his newly registered Douyin account getting more than 2 million followers in less than a week, on 4 April, Speed surpassed Mr Beast to become the most-followed American on Douyin with over 2.93 million followers. He also grew his YouTube subscribers by a million (from 37 million to 38 million) before he reached Hong Kong on 4 April. Speed clearly won big with his trip to China.
This, of course, is also due to the rather tame performance from IShowSpeed in China and quite wholesome interactions, such as behaving when scolded for his behaviour on a Chongqing Rail Transit train or asking a child fan to answer their father’s phone call in Hong Kong. IShowSpeed seems to have found the winning formula of being “abstract” and respectful at the appropriate moment.
IShowSpeedfound the winning formula of being “abstract” and respectful at the appropriate moment
In fact, the networking of influencers and netizens in and outside China does play a positive role in this time of division caused by tariffs and geopolitical tensions between China and the US. Just like Rednote welcomed the TikTok refugees from the US, netizens in China welcomed the youth “cultural ambassador”.
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