At the end of the year, the new year is coming, although next year is the Year of the Tiger, but recently another big cat animal "Golden Leopard" in the Internet can also compete with one of them. Topics related to "Golden Leopard" or "Leopard Essence" are extremely hot on major social media, and the online launch of the #Everything Can Money Leopard# campaign has a large number of participants, and the #Golden Leopard Avatar # # No one can refuse a Golden Leopard Avatar # and other topics have accumulated more than 200 million views. This time the golden leopard head portrait in the Internet popular, the overall public opinion field presents a relaxed and humorous atmosphere, playing with the terrier, there are also netizens put forward the question of "what is the golden leopard" and "why the golden leopard is on fire".
Figure: "Golden Leopard" event word cloud
Source: People's Cloud
Overnight "leopard" red
On January 12, a user named @Brainfuyi posted a screenshot of a chat with a friend on social media, the main content of which was that the other party suggested that he use the same money leopard avatar, taking the meaning of "changing the avatar has money". This golden leopard head is a picture of the character of "Leopard Spirit" in the sequel to the famous mainland TV series "Journey to the West". After this, probably because of the peculiar makeup of the leopard, coupled with the "money" meaning, the avatar was widely disseminated on the Internet.
Source: Little Red Book
People rely on the prototype story of this avatar and related content to actively create secondary works on major Internet platforms. Some netizens use the golden leopard avatar as a basis to modify and stitch, such as making the golden leopard picture into an emoji, or combining the golden leopard picture with other anime characters. There are also some netizens who return to the plot of "Journey to the West" for derivative text discussion, or according to the leopard essence related episodes in "Journey to the West" for ghost animal video production, follow-up enthusiasm and even drive the entire "Journey to the West" character image has been excavated, and the majority of netizens actively carry out interesting related content production.
Source: Network
Some Weibo netizens "DDDDawNn" commented, "Journey to the West is really magical, you can jump from black and white TV to big head color TV, and now I see the golden leopard brother in the cake-like TV again."
Source: Weibo
After "Leopard Red", the "China Youth Daily" WeChat public account commented that who could have imagined that the Leopard Essence of Ai Ye Hua Pi, which was once in the 86th edition of "Journey to the West", could become such a fire in the first month of 2022. The "National Humanistic History" WeChat public account believes that it does not matter who the "leopard spirit" is on the Internet, and everyone generally holds a view: "golden leopard" is equal to "money storm", and it is inseparable from the money leopard if you want to get rich.
New Year "Leopard" rich with digital folklore
The reason why the golden leopard head is ignited all over the network at this time is inseparable from the time node at the end of the year. Looking at the discussion around the head of the golden leopard in the overall public opinion field, the golden leopard's own "harmonic terrier" and its derived beautiful meaning are a major reason for its popularity.
New Year blessing is one of the traditional folk customs of the mainland with a long history, the ancients often used some language harmonics and metaphors to express the expectation of a better life, animal harmonic mascots are especially loved by people, such as "fish" related to "fish"; because "deer" and auspicious words "Lu, road" harmonic, used as a metaphor for "Fulu double complete, Fulu long, smooth road" and so on.
In recent years, as the Internet has gradually penetrated into the daily life of Chinese people, some blessing behaviors in the original real world have also been extended to the Internet, such as forwarding koi and praying for exams. The media logic of the Internet has given the tv role in the traditional media era a new meaning and connotation, which also makes the traditional New Year's blessing as a folk custom have a new version of the Internet age.
The collective nostalgia led by the "leopard spirit"
The age group of the leopard head that is popular this time is roughly under 35 years old. In addition to being related to the New Year's blessing, the reason why the third-rate character "Leopard Essence" in the ancient "Journey to the West" suddenly became the "top stream" at this time may also reflect a nostalgic mood of the majority of young people. As young people continue to make greater voices in the field of public opinion, they have gradually formed a unique expression of their own. Some of the film and television works that were once popular in their adolescence have been interpreted by them in a new way, giving them a new connotation of the times.
Take the "leopard essence" that suddenly became popular this time as an example. This monster character with a flecked pattern makeup is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and the related plot of "Journey to the West" together constitutes the collective memory of the vast number of young people, and this character with distinct appearance characteristics was re-summoned, empathized and widely popular by them at the end of the year. After more than 30 years, the golden leopard has become a carrier for transmitting emotions and communicating memories, evoking the memories of the times of this part of netizens, and creating a common emotional space for contemporary young people on the Internet.
"Leopard" after red
Every once in a while, there is always something that suddenly becomes popular on the Internet without warning. Researchers often refer to these things that are suddenly popular in the Internet as "network memes", and any ideographic form can become a "network meme", whether this form is a phrase, a picture or any other form, such as "inner volume", "yyds", "Ye Qing Hui" and other Internet buzzwords that we use every day.
Driven by the exuberant creative vitality of the Chinese Internet, the golden leopard has become a new generation of network memes at the time of the New Year. Even Wu Zhiyong, the actor of leopard spirit in the sequel to "Journey to the West", also released a New Year's greeting video due to the hot terrier of "Golden Leopard", which made the Atmosphere of the New Year more and more intense. In addition to playing with terriers, it also reflects the beautiful expectations of ordinary people for the new year, and these light-hearted and humorous contents together form part of the New Year's blessing culture in the digital age.
Some netizens know that the netizens' speeches better reflect this social sentiment, and we also take this opportunity to express our New Year's wishes to all readers, "The money leopard brush screen reflects that the New Year is approaching, and everyone wants to be auspicious and wishful, hoping to achieve rapid wealth in the coming year and achieve the purpose of rolling in financial resources." People hope that with the help of the golden leopard, it can be touched with joy, especially its yellow fur looks very festive, can sweep away all the haze, and smoothly in the new year! ”
Resources:
1. The first fire in the Little Red Book in 2022 is actually a leopard essence,
2.HUANG Tao. Harmonic Symbolism and Auspicious Folklore[J].Journal of Hebei University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), 2006(02):14-19.
Author: People's Network Public Opinion Data Center Gao Shuchao
Editor: Yang Xinru | Editor-in-charge: Li Yaqi Xia Yue
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