Change of Young People from the Barrage of Bilibili

Bilibili, or B Site for short, is often referred to as China's YouTube. Ten years ago, China already had Youku, Tudou, and other video websites, however, B Site has continued to demonstrate its long-term market potential.  B Site began by developing a targeted marketing strategy for young domestic animation fans, by providing them with a video-based communication platform.  After more than 10 years of development, B Site has now grown into the largest ACGN community in China.  After animation, anime cartoons, comics, games, and novels, encompass the second largest group of users.  

Furthermore, data shows that B Site has 197 million monthly active users, whose average age is approximately 21.  According to public analysis, in the next five years, the popularity rate of B Site among Chinese young people, will reach 70% - this will be nearly 340 million total users.

Since 2017, B Site has held an annual “Barrage Moment” contest, which ranks videos in order by highest views and greatest level of interaction.  At the end of 2020, the Annual Barrage of B Site was announced: Ye Qinghui ranked first, Wuhan Refueling was second, with Internal Flavor ranked third, Double Kitchen Exulting came in fourth, and Banning Nesting Dolls came in fifth.

Just like other young people, China’s youth enjoy using slang and abbreviations.  For example, "Ye Qing Hui," means "your youth is back," and also has a twin coinage, "Ye Qing Jie," which directly translates to “grandfather youth back.”  Although this is the direct translation, this phrase emphasizes that although your youth may be over, you can always be a child at heart - as if you are a grandfather with a childlike curiosity.  Those employing this phrase, that is, those who like to call themselves "ye,” are young people who have finished China's required nine-year compulsory education, and therefore are using the phrase in a sarcastic manner.  

There is quite a great deal of self-mockery and banter on Bilibili, but one important question remains: why do does China’s youth all start reminiscing about their younger days at the same time?  On the surface, this behavior seems to be highlighted by the launch of the TV series Journey to the West on B Site in June 2020.  The 25-episode domestic classic was first broadcasted in 1986 and has since aired on China’s most authoritative television station, China Central Television (CCTV), during children's summer holidays for more than 30 years. 

When people re-watch old shows from their youth under the company of Barrages, a great deal of nostalgia develops as one netizen commented, “when the heart-stirring opening song of Journey to the West plays, we are transported back to the summer of our childhood.”  For example, we can now feel the metamorphosis Wukong's emotional intelligence and profound character development on a personal level.  Furthermore, when we play "Ye Qing Hui" in the Barrage, we discover that we miss the carefree, clean, and purity of childhood and youth.  We tend to long for this time of our life because when we were younger, we were not burdened with the pressure of life, and thought that there were far more good people than bad people in the world; but as we get older, we learn that life is never that simple.  The daily grind of the same work, an annual change of age, may lead young people to have a completely different mentality as an adult than they did in their childhood; the way that they understand the world changes as their responsibilities and experience grows.

In 2017, B Site started to release a list of the “New Words of the Year.”  These new words were and have been directly representative of developing cultural norms and a reflection of evolving Chinese youth culture; this has helped people understand the cultural context of Chinese young people from their side.

By 2020, the use of pinyin abbreviations expanded significantly as their popularity soared.  As the use of pinyin abbreviations grew, and cultural norms continued to evolve, watching a barrage of new internet memes and acronyms every day, 20-somethings have noticed that as they have gotten older, the slang, memes, barrages, and acronyms of their childhood, have slowly begun to be replaced by a new generation Chinese youth.  This may become evident when they must ask themselves, “why can't I understand what they are saying?”  In the crazy fast paced virtual word and the continual growth of network buzzwords today, more than 20 years old "Ye" may soon be left behind by the times.

Whether it is "Ye Qing Hui", or "Ye Qing Knot", both express the fleeting of youth.  This is further exemplified by B Station’s official definition of, "Ye Qing Hui," which asserts that it refers to the public's desire to regain happiness.

In 2019, pinyin abbreviations became popular as young Internet users began to use them to express their feelings more quickly – these expressions included AWSL, GKD, KDL, and XFXY.

Among them, "AWSL" (oh my god I’m dead) is arguably the most versatile, which can vividly express a multitude of emotions such as surprise, excitement, happiness, and love.  AWSL has been used 3.29 million times alone and also won the title of 2019 Barrage.  If "Xi" and "Authenticity" are young people's reactions to real life, such as love and work, then "AWSL" is a strong expression of personal feelings.

As millions of young people leave school and enter the workforce, they begin to experience the challenges of adult life including, but not limited to, commuting, renting an apartment, and working overtime.  Furthermore, another societal challenge for young people has been securing and sustaining a long-term romantic relationship.  The inability to maintain a long-term romantic relationship has been linked to an overbearing childhood where children have been fed virtual sugar-coated bliss setting unrealistic standards to real life which has made it less likely young Chinese people to both seek out and to fall in love.  An example of this virtual sugar coating can be seen by Yueyi Niigaki trashy and unfulfilling declaration, in the popular TV series Escaping from Shame but Being Useful: "Very happy, three meals a day, a nap, playing video games to my heart's content, every day is very full."  Eating, sleeping, and playing games have become a trifecta of nostalgia for some young people and yearn for this sort of lifestyle, which emphasizes a life with few responsibilities, constant bursts of serotonin, and instant gratification. 

The danger that is posed by promoting these types of virtues in popular videos on Bilibili, especially during the annual Barrage, is that such actions do a disservice to our youth who are given a false narrative of what is important in life and precisely what types of obstacles are normal to encounter with the increased responsibilities of adulthood.  Growing up and having adult responsibilities and commitments should not be demonized or looked down upon in comparison to youthful pursuits and virtues, they should be equally praised and promoted to ensure that the youth understand what life is genuinely like in the real world.

On Site B, commenting on the Barrage is arguably the most interesting part of the video experience. Viewers get to watch videos while making comments and interacting with other Netizens which allows for a community to develop.  Many comments are displayed in gliding subtitles that drift across the screen, like a barrage from a flying shooter, which ensures that even those who are not actively commenting still are given a chance to interact with the other viewers (B Site’s bullet screen video system is derived from the Japanese bullet screen video sharing website Niconico Animation).

Figures show that audiences plowed more than 2.2 billion Barrages at B Site in 2020, 800 million more than in 2019. The Annual Barrage of B Site happens every year, but it is rare for an old meme to be reused the following year, as the popular language of the network changes so frequently.

The Annual Barrage is both a summary of the past year's pop culture trends and a presentation of the year's most heart-felt and resonating social sentiments.  The concentration of popular searches and barrages are like code words, as each demonstrates the process of Chinese young people searching for identity, belonging, and for community.

While editing the article on Site B and the correlating nostalgia that people in their twenties in China have increasingly experienced, I found myself relating to the very same type of nostalgia in my own life.  I do not think that it is too much of a generalization to assume that people of all nations experience similar emotions at some point in their life and I think that a nostalgic longing for a simpler time is certainly one of them.  I would argue that at some point in one’s life, we all long for the simpler days of our childhood and how such a carefree time in our life allowed for each of us to genuinely believe that practically anything was possible.  This nostalgia for me hits hardest when I see a movie on television or Disney+ that I had first saw with my friends on a Saturday at the movies in high school, or when I would hear a song on the radio that I danced to with my Junior Prom date while commuting to graduate school and work at four o’clock in the morning.  The article emphasizes how as people age, they seem to feel the distance between them and their childhood on a deeper and heavier level, and that although people may grow older, they do not have to lose their childlike curiosity and can, and should, always remain young at heart.

The most difficult part about editing this article, was ensuring that the translation was accurate and understandable.  For example, although the entire article was in English, there was a significant amount of slang used that I was unfamiliar with.  For this reason, I needed to conduct additional research so that I could develop a firm understanding of these terms, their common uses, their origins, as well as the overall market evolution of Bilibili.  What the article and my research revealed was that Site B not only is a place for people to congregate and interact, but it is a place that can both highlight and create pop culture trends.  This is important for any business that is seeking new platforms to expand their advertising into, especially for companies that desire to appeal to and reach a younger demographic. 

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