Winnie the Flu — When Memes Go Global
March 24, 2020 — Truly viral memes jump from platform to platform, being remixed along a number of dimensions as they change hands: context, language, motivations, geographies to name a few. As memes evolve, some remain insular and used by only a specific ingroup of people. Others, however, go global, attracting a diversity of online movements to unintended and often surprising results. One such meme that’s moved from Chinese social media to American-controlled platforms is the long-running use of Winnie the Pooh to deride China’s president, Xi Jinping.
In late 2019, several Chinese diplomats and agency spokespeople created accounts on Twitter. They would typically post regular day-to-day updates such as meetings between their staff and foreign counterparts or retweet other ambassadors and Chinese state media. This engagement on Twitter was perhaps an effort for China to gain legitimacy as a world superpower. As the meme transforms during the COVID-19 pandemic, however, it is quickly shifting meanings with dangerously stigmatizing connotations.
Why Winnie the Pooh?
Originally created by a user called badtuzizi on the massive Chinese microblogging platform, Weibo, the Winnie the Pooh as Chinese President Xi Jinping meme has captured the creativity of meme makers since 2013. The original meme (see above) juxtaposed an image of Xi and Obama walking with an image of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. Although the meme was first posted to Weibo, it quickly went viral in the West when @MissXQ shared the image on Twitter. In China, where strict information controls prevent outright criticism of political elites, the Winnie the Pooh meme allowed Chinese netizens to mock President Xi — that is until 2017 when it emerged that Winnie the Pooh was being scrubbed from popular platforms in China. Despite China’s attempts to mitigate the virality of the meme, however, Pooh persisted.
When Xi met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2017, for example, the following was circulating on Weibo:
In 2019, amidst the Hong Kong protests and claims that Carrie Lam was a stooge for the CCP, the meme emerged again. This time on Facebook by Leung Pak-kin, a well-known Hong Kong lyricist.
And amidst the novel coronavirus pandemic, it has taken on a new life, as well as new users and targets.
New Targets, Same Memes
As COVID-19 went global and anger at the Chinese government’s response reached a fever pitch, Twitter users, who would otherwise have little to no contact with China’s top diplomats became connected to one another, opening up new lines of communication, and opportunities for trolling. Critics of all kinds, be they Hong Kong-based activists, far-right provocateurs, or Trump supporters, wrote scathing replies to these diplomats and spokespeople.
By using Twitter for official communications, China’s top diplomats and other high profile politicians are moving into uncharted territory, opening them up to both supportive and oppositional publics. Indeed, there are often just as many positive replies as there are negative. But without the ability to moderate content like in other online spaces in China, it remains uncertain what this expanded exposure will do to the Chinese elite. What we do know, however, is that the use of memes as mockery will be prevalent. Already, embedded in the replies to the CCP’s diplomats and official accounts is a familiar face complete with a COVID-19 makeover: Winnie the Flu.
For example, in response to a tweet criticizing the CDC’s response by Hua Chunying, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, a pseudonymous account posted the following image:
Likewise, other iterations of Winnie the Pooh emerged in response to other diplomats’ tweets.
In other iterations of the meme, the relationship between Xi Jinping and the World Health Organization (WHO) was called into question, alleging either collusion, coercion, or bribery. Several public health experts have alleged that the WHO has been overly deferential to China, while others said they felt deceived by the WHO’s praise of China’s response. As such, the relationship between the WHO, its director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and Xi Jinping are under heavy criticism.
This has led to a slew of political cartoons that combine the Winnie the Pooh meme with criticism of the WHO’s motivations. The cartoons below were posted in response to tweets by the Ambassador of China to the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
What’s next for Winnie the Pooh?
As Winnie the Pooh gets remixed again and again in open mockery of the CCP, Xi, and the Chinese response to COVID-19, its meaning and ownership transforms with each new political opportunity. Although the meme was originally employed by Chinese netizens to critique Xi, it has been used by a growing number of individuals and groups from Ben Shapiro, a conservative political commentator, to South Park, which resulted in the entire series being banned in China.
With Twitter, this convergence of once disparate communities from Chinese political elites to conspiratorial and far-right online influencers are now all crowded onto the same platform. Emerging amidst the pandemic, rising anti-China sentiment, and nationalist rhetoric, the meme now risks being co-opted by right-wing nationalists. Along with the term “Winnie the Flu,” such memes are often just one or two clicks away from racist stereotyping targeting Chinese people. While the Chinese government may have sought out Twitter as a space to legitimize spokespeople in the quest for world power, the use of the open platform could prove to be a strategic mistake. What happens next remains to be seen, but as Winnie’s friend Eeyore once said, “They’re funny things, Accidents. You never have them till you’re having them.”
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Meme War Weekly is a newsletter addressing political messaging that comes from the wilds of the internet, produced by the Technology and Social Change Research Project at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. Each week, we will look closely at the use of popular slogans and images and how they are shifting political conversations.
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