"U swan, he frog" is a comment left on a blogger's post about having to say goodbye to her boyfriend on a Chinese social media site. The white blogger, who goes by YouKris, left a tearful photo on the platform and Chinese users rushed to offer words of comfort, make jokes, or trash her boyfriend's looks.
"you pretty, he ugly, you swan, he frog!" one commenter wrote.
Screenshots of this and other comments made their way to Twitter, and the statement caught on to the point that it's growing into a meme.
What is the 'u swan he frog' meme?
This comment, meant to comfort YouKris by claiming that her boyfriend isn't attractive enough for her to cry over, was singled out over many others who attempted to overcome the language barrier between Chinese and English. While similar comments were made, including "you are a beauty and he is a monkey," there's something about "u swan, he frog" that captured the attention of native English Twitter users.
People are now repeating the comment as a copypasta over photos of celebrity couples whom some believe are mismatched when it comes to levels of attractiveness. Others are claiming that the statement itself helped them get over past breakups or begging the Chinese government to allow its citizens onto global social media sites.
'u swan he frog' origins
Not much is known about the blogger YouKris, but according to Chinese news sources, she has an account on the platform Xiaohongshu. She may be living in China for some amount of time and struggling with the distance between herself and her boyfriend, though some have speculated that they were breaking up.
It's possible that it was an amicable parting of ways, but otherwise, people don't tend to post selfies of their relationships ending. Still, many of the comments appear to be reacting as though she had been dumped, like the one saying "Men all are feet of big pig." Then again, there may simply be cultural differences at play here.
What we do know is that YouKris posted the photo in early August 2024, and according to Chinese media, many of the comments are local colloquialisms that don't translate well. "Cry what cry," for example, has essentially the same meaning as "snap out of it."
Is this meme racist?
Some Chinese Twitter users have expressed discomfort with the "u swan he frog" meme because it could be seen as a mockery of how native Chinese speakers who are learning English speak. The U.S. and other primarily white nations have gross histories of mocking what is sometimes called "Chinglish" or the Chinese language itself.
"idk if i'm overreacting but that 'you swan, he frog' meme and its variants doesn't sit right with me as a chinese person," wrote user @conwaldrons. "like we all know the reason why you guys actually find that joke funny."
Things got worse when tiny accounts owned by white guys started making blatantly Sinophobic comments such as calling Chinese people "real life NPCs."
However, most of the reactions seem to praise the sentiment and its succinctness in summing up the correct attitude to have after a difficult breakup.
Meme reactions
Related memes:
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- Redditors post Winnie the Pooh memes to protest Chinese company funding
- The greatest Chinese meme that never was
- Origins of the ‘Here’s What You Would Look Like If You Were Black Or Chinese’ meme
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