A video named “山道猴子的一生” (“Life of a Mountain Road Speed Demon”) has been trending on the Internet, garnering over 5 million views in the space of a few days.
The video is nothing short of ordinary and crude. It uses the “Wojak” meme — a crudely drawn digital portrait of a bald-headed man with an expression that borders between expressionless or wistful — and artificial intelligence voice dubbing for dialogue. It depicts the story of how a young car fanatic, who works at a convenience store, recklessly bought a heavy motorcycle on credit out of vanity and megalomania. His motorcycle attracted a fellow female car fanatic to become his girlfriend, but she later dumped him after using him as a cash cow. Overwhelmed by debt, past trauma from getting cheated on and his ambition to become an Internet celebrity, “Wojak” finally crashed into a car in a motor race, where his death became material for a live stream video by another Internet celebrity.
Stripping away any trace of visual or audio aestheticism, the video has only dialogue and plot to speak for itself. Perhaps this is the very reason viewers find it oddly compelling and resonant on a deeper level.
It sheds light into the values, mood and angst of young people nowadays, whether it is a lack of financial discipline, problematic values in relationships, or social media obsession. The video touches upon the issue of “exquisite poverty,” a phenomenon that refers to excessive purchases of luxury goods in pursuit of an ideal image. While this ideal image is far from their true image, it results in people being apparently “exquisite,” but actually poor. This issue is associated with the “lying flat” concept. Instead of saving to buy a house or car or planning for marriage and parenthood, young people spend money on food, travel or their hobbies — things that are easier to obtain, bringing instant gratification and vanity.
The video unveils the pitfall of masculinity and how it could sow the seed of misogyny. “Wojak” was a heterosexual male who relied on wealth to showcase his masculinity, regardless of his financial status. For his first girlfriend, his ego and vanity had him borrowing money to satisfy her every need; regarding his second girlfriend, he felt “belittled” when she offered to find work to relieve his financial burden. This mindset taps into the angst of young heterosexual males who need to be better than their female counterparts at everything, especially money. When this relationship is reversed, they tend to feel insecure or become a control freak, and when rejected or dumped, they start attributing misogynistic labels to women, such as “gold diggers” or “fickle” instead of reviewing themselves for mistakes.
In the zero-sum game of a patriarchal society, men are often expected to be leaders or the dominating party in the public arena. “Wojak” viewed himself as a nobody working in a convenience store, so turned to his hobbies to seek status. This kind of pressure to prevail over others might also be why the hot-headed protagonist would do anything, even at the price of his own life, to win a race against a stranger. After all, racing is the only thing he was ever good at, or so he believed.
The final problem with young people might be their obsession with social media. “Wojak’s” behavior mainly stemmed from his desire to garner more attention or emulation on social media, whether it was from sharing new riding tricks or trying to attract girlfriends. For young people, the need to win the approval of their friends, followers or even society can be an overwhelming pressure.
It might seem strange that a simple, crude video could trigger such a huge response on the Internet, but it might be that the car fanatic could be any of us, that his psychology is a microcosm of modern-day youngsters and that his tragedy hits closer to home for many.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of
RSS