The epic eye-rolling reporter memes that have taken over the Chinese internet

It remains unclear if the reporter will be fired for her spectacular, spontaneous reaction to a softball question

Yesterday, a reporter actually managed to make people pay attention to China’s typically lifeless annual parliamentary sessions with a glorious moment of shade-filled spontaneity.

As another female reporter asked a ridiculously long-winded and pandering question to an official at a press conference in Beijing, Liang Xiangyi from Shanghai’s Yicai business news outlet couldn’t hide her disgust, resulting in an epic eye-roll that launched a thousand memes.

Okay, perhaps not not quite 1,000 memes, but certainly a lot. Here are just some of the images floating around Chinese social media at the moment:

Liang’s incredible reaction has also ignited a playful war online between red and blue “factions” of Chinese netizens:

Been added to other footage for hilarious effect:

And has even spawned recreations and parodies:

Meanwhile, Liang’s name has become the most blocked term on Weibo and Chinese censors have issued a directive prohibiting all media personnel from discussing the incident.

“Anything already posted must be deleted. Without exception, websites must not hype the episode,” reads the directive conveyed by China Digital Times.

While the eye-roll has won Liang multitudes of fans from across the country, boosting her up to more than 200,000 followers on Weibo, it remains to be seen whether the gesture was a smart career move.

Rumors have been running wild about her being fired by her employer and a colleague told the South China Morning Post that Liang’s media accreditation at the NPC has been revoked.