A 2026 meme built on a traditional bamboo toy called 竹知了 ("bamboo cicada") whose "wa-wa" creaking sound was discovered to closely resemble the audience's startled exclamations — and a tech executive's distinctive speech pattern and pauses — at a major Chinese product launch event, spawning thousands of parody recreation videos per day.
REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
"这个竹知了的声音，跟发布会现场观众的惊呼声一模一样。"
LORE & ORIGIN
In late July to early August 2026, Chinese internet users noticed that the sound made by squeezing a traditional bamboo cicada toy was strikingly similar to the crowd reactions at Huawei's Hongmeng Zhixing launch event, as well as CEO Yu Chengdong's verbal tics and pronunciation pauses. This sparked a wave of comedic recreation videos captioned with lines like "the best toy under 10 million" and "leading by a long way," with reportedly over 3,000 new videos posted daily at its peak. The meme escalated into a genuine public controversy when Huawei filed mass takedown complaints alleging reputational damage, which backfired via the Streisand effect and drove even more attention to the toy and its parody videos.
EQUIVALENT CONCEPTS IN OTHER LANGUAGES
MENTIONS OVER TIME
RELATED SEARCHES
TOP PLATFORMS
WHEN DID YOU FIRST HEAR THIS?
CLICK AN OPTION BELOW TO CAST YOUR VOTE.
[ VOTE TO REVEAL COMMUNITY RESULTS ]