Baobao Xiong is a foreign creator living in China. In summer 2024, in a video, he asked his sister in a catchy tone: "City bu city a?" — here "city" means trendy, modern, cool. The phrase spread like wildfire.
Why did "city bu city" go viral? Because it's simple and universal: new mall — "city bu city?"; new outfit — "city bu city?"; a feast — "city bu city?" The Chinese-English mashup is inherently funny. Even a Foreign Ministry spokesperson quoted the phrase — that's how mainstream it became.
Baobao Xiong rode the wave as the "meme himself". His videos record ordinary life in China: parks, street food, learning Chinese, chatting with strangers — relaxed, unpolished and genuinely popular.
One foreigner's catchphrase sweeping all of China is itself proof of openness. Language flows, cultures mix — "city bu city" may be the most vivid footnote of the 2020s.
Baobaoxiong (Paul, born after 2000), a Sino-American blogger, went viral with the phrase "City bu City?" ("is this place trendy or not?"), becoming one of 2024 most famous internet buzzword creators.
How it happened: in his videos he tours Chinese cities with his sister or friends, asking in English "City bu City?" - she answers "City!" - this simple, addictive call-and-response with exaggerated expressions spread everywhere. Chinese netizens adopted it as everyday slang.
Why it took off: the phrase mixes Chinese and English (City + bu + City), fits internet meme culture, and directly expresses "is this place cool?" Simple, fun and borderless - the formula for virality.
Impact: "City bu City" was even quoted by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, becoming a phenomenal internet term. An ordinary blogger casual phrase became a footnote in Sino-foreign cultural exchange.
Lesson: internet buzzwords are the most vivid cultural carriers. Baobaoxiong proves good cross-cultural content needs no grand narrative - one fun meme lets two cultures laugh together.
A detail worth savouring: his sister English answer "City!" is the standard code-mix, and netizens expanded it into countless variants - showing a buzzword lifespan depends on "playability". When a meme can be remixed by netizens, it is truly alive. That is also proof that language is living.
"City bu City" spawned countless remixes: dialect versions, foreign-language versions, even quizzes for foreigners to "translate it". A buzzword entering official discourse, everyday slang and exam memes at once shows it hit the era expression need precisely. Language vitality lives in such mass participation.
Summary: he proved with one phrase that the boundary of language is not borders but imagination. Today it is a meme; tomorrow it may enter dictionaries - in the internet age, language is being co-created by everyone.
Netizens predicted "City bu City" would become the 2024 phrase of the year - in or out of dictionaries, it has already entered the internet memory of this year.
