Ladies and gentlemen, we have Jiang Zemin – “the elder.”

Jiang Zemin was a pretty popular president in his own time. Though not without criticism, his term marked a breaking point in the widespread reforms that would go on to define the successes of post-Cultural Revolution China. By today’s standards, Jiang could be called conservative, but in the early 90s when he came into power, he was a revolutionary. His China in the 1990s was in many ways more liberal than it is now. Jiang Zemin was a powerful and respected president, but today the 91-year-old man, still very much alive, is reborn as a meme beacon of hope to China’s millennials.

Younger Chinese have adopted the leader as a beloved character of their own, despite not being old enough to clearly remember his presidency. Grainy video clips are enough to document the ex-leader’s unscripted public persona (a trait unmatched by perhaps any party official to come before or after him). In the clip above, Jiang scolds a reporter for asking if China’s elite had personally selected Hong Kong’s next president. Jiang rises to his feet and marches straight to the camera, in order to deliver a riveting oral address in three languages. He asks the reporters why they can’t be more like CNN’s Mike Wallace, whose company Jiang says he enjoyed very much. I’m speaking to you as an elder, he tells them, unwittingly generating his eternal nickname. He tells them they must raise their journalistic standards, then switches into English to denounce their questions as too simple… sometimes naïve!

Given the otherwise standard history of CCCP leaders as either cold pragmatists or calculated androids of Communist ideology, Jiang Zemin’s animated, genuine demeanor is a welcome breath of fresh air. It would be natural to write this outburst off as a one-time kind of occurrence. We’re happy to tell you, it’s not. In different videos Jiang can be found waltzing with the French president’s wife, playing the ukulele for a crowd of onlookers, and singing Elvis tunes.

Jiang Zemin pulls out a comb to fix his hair at a meeting with the Spanish king

The unlikely cult of personality that’s grown around Jiang is called moha (膜蛤), or toad-worship, referencing the leader’s admittedly amphibian features. Toad lovers who admire Jiang will use his most famous phrases frequently, and quickly bond with anyone who can respond with a Jiang Zemin quote of their own.

In China, though, even something as innocuous and positive as praising one of the country’s significant leaders is not so simple. In recent years, searches for Jiang’s name have become increasingly censored. Part of it had to do with a surge of untrue rumors about his death (remember, he is still alive). Really, the central government in Beijing doesn’t want people talking about politics at all, but searches for Jiang’s name are especially obscured in the context of Xi Jinping’s presidency. He and Jiang were political rivals, and there’s speculation among the people in China that Xi’s crackdown on corruption serves the secondary purpose of removing Jiang Zemin supporters from the party’s ranks, which falls in line with further speculation that Xi might attempt to stay on for an unprecedented third term.

Connections have been drawn between the beloved toad Jiang and another froggy figure who stands between the worlds of politics and internet memes: Pepe. The cartoon frog rose to a position of holding actual political influence when he was adopted as symbol of the alt-right during last year’s American election. Pepe went from a crude drawing circulating on message boards to a figure of political weight. Jiang Zemin looks like he might one-up the situation, going from a major political figure to a meme, and thereby back to a major influence on the digital generation that’s building tomorrow’s China.

One toad lover explained his own love of Jiang:

“I think it’s hard to pinpoint one reason for the phenomenon. I think it’s just his personality – his behavior is so different from the other Chinese leaders, especially Hu Jintao or Xi Jinping. They’re more contained, more restrained, very careful with their words. Also, the younger people didn’t really live through his period, so that contributes to the mystique around him.”

It’s 2017 and memes have actual power now. Jiang Zemin’s unlikely rise to internet superstardom could very well have an effect on the next generation of China’s leaders – he really was one-of-a-kind in the country’s history. In the meantime, we’ll leave you with these nonsense memes.

You don’t care about any of that, though. You want to know about this:

Yes, that is Donald Trump in a PLA uniform.

No, that is not a real photograph — we have People’s Daily, a Chinese government publication, to thank for it, as they recently released a fun meme-maker that lets people upload photos (of themselves, I think is the point) that are then superimposed onto PLA uniforms from different eras. For example, I uploaded the picture of the Donald above onto a uniform from World War II.

Naturally, we wanted to see how the Donald looks throughout all the eras. Let’s start from the beginning and move forward:

There he is, a spry young man, during the Nanchang Uprising, the first major engagement in the Chinese Civil War on August 1, 1927. What a moment in history, when the Donald, full of theory and idealism, and blessed with ignorance, entered the fray as the ultimate underdog in a campaign to upset the established order.

Of course, there would be much hardship in the coming years, as he and his fellow politically ostracized “bandits” were driven into the heart of the country, where humble, family-oriented, salt-of-the-earth villagers welcomed him with a fervor and passion which his opponents could not understand.

The “Red Army” marched across the country, rallying the underclass to their cause while evading a better-stocked, more experienced and “refined” enemy. For the Donald to have any chance at victory, certain… tactics would need to be employed.

But guerrilla warfare suited the Donald just fine.

The conclusion of the internecine conflict saw the founding of the People’s Republic of China, with Mao, modestly dressed in a woolen jacket, declaring it so on October 1, 1949 from the rostrum of Tiananmen. If you squint really hard at some of the footage from that time, you can see, to Mao’s left as he faces the crowd, the unmistakeable smirk of this figure:

But the rigors of bureaucracy proved difficult for the Donald, who demanded loyalty above all else — to himself, not the country. He formed unholy alliances with oligarchs and despots. He set traps for the intellectual class, which he hated with all his lifeblood, for he himself had been rejected by them. He made speeches, albeit infrequently, to consolidate his power. He had his stooge call an enemy “a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac.” He turned his countrymen against one another, and would have gladly destroyed a once-proud culture to preserve his legacy. All the while, he held the expression of one who is unable to find the letter Q on a Write and Learn Touch Tablet.

Who could he turn to in times of need? Who would, as he so often does in front of a personal ornate embossed antique gold framed mirror, pucker up at his every glance, and execute with incurious resolve the duties of the true patriot?

The years wore on the Donald.

His eyes sagged underneath the weight of his responsibilities. He lost the ability to give proper physical response to natural stimuli. His every bodily movement became a simulacrum of basic human behavior. His smiles became squints. His words became grunts. Standing over the toilet, pinching the squat end of his prune, he shat when he meant to pee.

He lost his smile.

Gaze long upon his eyes, and you might glimpse the abyss.

Lord have mercy on us all.

Some clever Taobao vendors have decided to capitalize on Luis Suarez’s penchant for human flesh by creating what appears to be a bottle opener fashioned from a likeness of the Uruguayan striker’s jaw. And look – it can be had for only 17 RMB!

As Wall Street Journal’s China Realtime Report points out, the image is taken from a photoshopped picture that circulated following the Uruguay-Italy game that saw Suarez sink his gnashers into Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini.

“One mouth, one opener….one bite and it’s open,” read one advertisement.

The quality of these products is not to be trusted, but this is apparently a very real thing. Heres ECNS.cn:

A search for the item on Wednesday returned more than twenty results on Chinese’s largest online market Taobao, with prices ranging from 888 yuan to 9,999 yuan ($142 to $1604). Some had already been added to customer watch lists.

WSJ again:

Others were more serious about turning the meme into cash. One vendor with the screen name Lin Mumu0393 said he had received 108 orders and that he was still working with manufacturers to make the product. He said he would have limited supplies in two weeks.

Get em while you can!

Found on Ai Weiwei’s Instagram feed, here’s what some cool kids are up to: “hand-held guns,” they call it. There are some uncanny resemblances to The Red Detachment of Women, the famous Chinese ballet that debuted in 1964…

Is there something more subversive going on here, or is the point of this to make us over-analyze a silly meme? Hmm.

UPDATE, 6/14, 1:02 am: Says someone from Ai Weiwei’s studio: “A colleague saw a post of the Chinese dancers then took a photo. The rest of us started doing our own versions.”

UPDATE, 6/14, 8:38 pm: Here’s an informative Guardian article about the “leg-gun” pose:

Weiwei’s so-called leg-gun series certainly raises more questions than it answers. Whether this is a political gesture, a genuinely subversive criticism of state-controlled media, an artistic expression or simply his answer to the famous “Angelina Jolie’s leg” meme remains a mystery. But the fact that one underwear-flashing, calf-clasping photo can produce a global conversation about state freedom, violence, Chinese communism, artistic interpretation and global power speaks volumes about the potency of the artist in our internet age.

As one Chinese commenter said on The Red Detachment of Women image posted by Weiwei, “This firing made loopholes.” We’ll just have to wait and see where those loopholes lead.

And the AWW original that began it all:

(H/T Rosalyn)

Showcasing the best in Asian-related memes. Sources: We Know Memes, The Nanfang (below), Wuluwu.

But! Via WSJ:

A viral phenomenon dubbed the “somersault kiss” is sweeping the Chinese Internet, prompting the nation’s public security bureau to intercede on behalf of the country’s not-so-acrobatic enthusiasts.

Via

Showcasing the best in Asian-related memes. Sources: Chinese Hacks (above), This is a Typo, Wuluwu.

Via This is a Typo: Where can I get a drink around here? (Zhou Enlai would have approved.) #Shanghai #China #Maotai #Moutai #上海 #中國 #大陸 #茅台

Via

Showcasing the best in Asian-related memes. Sources: Angry Asian Man (above), Offbeat China (below), ChinaHush (cartoon by 四季将轮回_Mono), Wuluwu.

Showcasing the best in Asian-related memes. Sources: Tea Leaf Nation (above), Emma in China (below), Wuluwu.

Showcasing the best in Asian-related memes. Sources: John Ruwitch (above), Shanghaiist (below), Wuluwu.

今日鳳凰全媒體全時空关注焦点：给北大雕像戴口罩，行为艺术，也是一种表达诉求的方式。 pic.twitter.com/74zkGuApbd

— 闾丘露薇 (@roseluqiu) February 25, 2014

Showcasing the best in Asian-related memes. Above, via Offbeat China: “2014 is the year of the horse on Chinese lunar calendar, and the always creative Chinese netizens came up with a brilliant idea to celebrate the New Year ‘on horseback.’ How? To put your wishes for the coming year literally on horseback.”

Via NeochaEDGE: “Shanghainese photographer Gong Yingying (aka: Jessie) brings us this series of GIF animations, entitled ‘Shanghai on High Heels’”:

This week’s Wuluwu selection:

Via

Showcasing the best in Asian-related memes. Above via China Media Project: “Following a report in December 2013 by the Beijing News about poor migrants living in underground wells in the capital’s Chaoyang District because they could not afford housing there, local authorities sent teams to seal the well entrances with concrete.”

Via @badiucao

Via @kemc

The above is only marginally China/Chinese related, but there is so much genius here that you’ll excuse me. Every parent should assign grades to his of her kid’s work that supplements the teacher’s grade, and so many of these deserve A’s.

38 Test Answers That Are 100% Wrong But Totally Genius At The Same Time (Distractify)

Showcasing the best in Asian-related memes. Sources: Tea Leaf Nation, Bridgers’ Finds, Wuluwu.

Via

Showcasing the best in Asian-related memes. Sources: We Know Memes, Buzzfeed (above), Wuluwu.

Via

Showcasing the best in Asian-related memes. Sources: We Know Memes.

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