The two faces of China's young, fed up workers
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 มี.ค. 2024
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A 20-year-old South Korean cartoon character named Loopy has found new fame on Chinese social media. Conceived as a shy and timid character two decades ago, the new Loopy persona is now a sarcastic and outspoken office intern. She has also become the go-to subject for various memes among China’s labour force, known as dagongren. This episode of Cultured looks at why this pink cartoon beaver has seen a resurgence and how it has resonated with so many people.
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As someone who grew up with Pororo, Loopy becoming a representation of Chinese workers who are tired of being exploited feels so unreal and it almost seems like a fever dream 😭😭
im just confused
Same
Class icon ✨
For real! She used to be one of my favourites (or my favourite??) when I was a child, I saw some of the memes but I couldn't really believe it was her at first...
西方国家殖民侵略非洲、亚洲、中国和中东国家的时候，没有考虑过别人辛不辛苦吗？
你们西方国家享受祖先掠夺完别人的资源的时候，却指责发展中国家落后？
虚伪又双标，简直令人恶心。🤮
Loopy has really changed ever since Pororo fired her from his show
Lol
Wait she was fired?!?!?
@@sxg4rfr3eit’s a joke I think, or not
@@sxg4rfr3e you didn’t know?
I love your username.
They didn't "distort" Loopy, they gave her character development 😂
EXACTLY
It means that most of adolescents and adults who worked in nowadays workforce suffer something called "work depression"
Nonsense .
Depressed individuals doesn't waste time making memes !
@@peekaboopeekaboo1165idk man. If depressed individuals can work, raise children, and drive a car, they can make memes. I think they manage to cover up the worse symptoms for periods of time, so they can act “normal” on the outside.
@@yucol5661
Maybe ...
Well it could be high-functioning depression
0:07
I like the young tech worker. He speaks slowly and clearly
timestamp ?
@@stevethea52507:47
yw!
@@stevethea52507:19
6:38 @@stevethea5250
To be fair, Bluey becomes the thing for US adult fandoms
Aggrestuko is definitely Japan's Loopy.
You mean Squidward?
No way- I LOVE Bluey!
Pororo is a bigger icon in Korea. Adults and kids cherish it. It is the growing show for children
@@UnabashedShep-4L20 I believe she is
this is like the korean version of aggretsuko...
What is aggretsuko?
@@mashitta5969 animated series from Netflix, spin-off of a side character originally from Hello Kitty which showcases office life and young adult(s) transitioning into society and the pressures that come with it. Personally I find the first 1 or 2 seasons were great, but sort of tapers off plot-wise, but still worth a watch.
It's not Aggretsuko though, it's Pororo
@@n0ah_p1ll0rNo, he mant the Aggretsuko character was originally from Hello Kitty franchise. But it is true Loopy character was from Pororo
@@devalinohizkiapradipta2157 Yeah but I'm talking about this video
I hated Loopy as a little kid (2000s) because I thought she was so sassy and bad tempered. It’s interesting that she’s become so popular
Bru same
lol what... in what language did you watch her? 😂 If in Korean, name one episode where she is ill tempered. Due to my toddler, I practically know every of the first 5 seasons' episodes by heart now lol or is this some meta sarcasm that I don't get.
Its been a long time since i watched Pororo and i cant remember the episodes or the characters names much anymore but i hated that Penguin girl idk why i just remember hating her
@@MeLMeLMox You mean the purple one, Petty?
isn't she the most kind one?
Abusive employers are everywhere in the world. Little wages, being made to work long hours and doing more than 1 person's job. Glad they found their peace through Loopy merchandise and its social media.
South Korea themselves have it worse, a huge problem of overworked and no family life. Their recent reported birthrate has dropped to all time low of 0.78. Women and men work overtime till late and men don't come home until midnight because they are out working overtime or hanging out with the boss at bars to curry favor for promotion. The children are stuck studying in Hagwons (after school tuition) till 10:30pm. Housing and cost of living is one of the highest in the world to bring up a child. Nobody has a life other than trying to get ahead.😢
@@s._3560
Agree.
Loopy represents Korean culture more than the Chinese one.
In China, everyone has a home + some have been helped by the govt to secure their homes.
@@maggiechan33hilarious
@@s._3560also add the increasing suicide rates isn’t helping either
Nothing Like Consumer Therapy
I swear, its always characters from my childhood comes back with something youll never expect.
List characters from ur childhood
Fr but they turn way better than their old counterparts 😭
Yeah. Like Squidward. When I was just a junior high schooler I find him funny whenever he complains about his job in Spongebob Squarepants but when I'm adult it hits different and Mr. Krab hits different too
Wow, Pororo is big, I mean really big in Indonesia. 😂😂😂
Yeah, it's surprising how big it is
Facts 😭
Benar😭😭😭💀💀💀☠️☠️☠️
As an indonesian, i can confirm this
how big
I think everyone has realized we've built enough and it's time to enjoy and sustain it. Unlimited growth forever is the goal of the foolish, and soon to be the goal of the eaten.
Perfectly said. Eventually society will reach a breaking point because realistically NO ONE wants to work...if only it was easy to have easier lives that we can all enjoy without having to worry about expenses or promotions
the rub is: we have indeed produced enough... FOR the elites. and we're still required to produce more to sustain our existence. a worst of both worlds situation where you're forced by daily necessity to keep serving a broadly oversaturated market.
@@puma8262 the work culture comes from poverty; people didn't want to work before either, but its either that or starve. Now, its either work or live a normal life.
Literally fricking Kuromi in the back:
5:16
what about it you can see mario on the top left
Kuromi Supremacy
YES
Kuromi is the best Sanrio character
Yeaaa
i'm korean, and i grew up watching pororo, and was also the show that got EBS (south korean educational service) that got all the nostalgic shows for children in korea, and korean-americans. as a kid i thought of loopy as the shy and talented chef that doesn't like trouble. honestly i think it's mostly nostalgia, but for some reason i don't like how pororo changed to a more international kind of show and have all the characters being their own main character in a way, and how the whole show turned into something consumed by children on youtube shorts
I learned of Pororo when I lived in Korea at a young age, and it’s stuck with me a lot of my life, but I’m surprised more Americans are aware of it
Therapist: “distorted loopy doesn’t exist and won’t hurt you”
Distorted loopy: 2:09
Simple. Young workers cannot by apartments on their own, so the incentive to work is weak
It's essentially just a Korean Wojack/Pepe that both Chinese and Korean users make memes of. I think people latched on to it cause Loopy its cute and the original Korean memes are very expressive. I have around 20 Loopy stickers on my Wechat but none of them really have anything to do with work. I think you might be over-analyzing the memes but that's just me. I guess you could call the Polish Wojack an icon for disillusioned millenials and zoomers in the West.
SCMP has an anti-Chinese bias for the longest time !
Only young graduate employees are exploiting Loopy and other children characters as memes .
SCMP has both anti-China AND anti-West videos. You probably didnt watch their videos on the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestine matters lol@@peekaboopeekaboo1165
@@peekaboopeekaboo1165 While the anti China gov't bias can be there, you cannot discount the fact that the latest generation loves to voice their discontent and shove their ideas to people
I think this too, I’m Chinese and I see loopy more as a character which became popular, then a small group of people decided to use it to express their frustration through memes. It’s just like here in western media, we use memes to represent pretty much anything
@@baconbroski-2238ya, Pepe the Frog isn't representative of White Supremacists, but some dumb white supremacist losers use it anyway as they have nothing to latch on or look forward in life.
I'm in love with this realistic depiction of loopy
Ain't his the plushie with the hair and glasses
Yea, the one that looks like lilypichu
It kinda feels like theres a similar sentiment across the world from young people right now
Were changing our future 😮
I was not expecting this video out of my childhood was in my recommendations but slay Loopy 😭
It makes me laugh how Asians just use all the African American pop culture sayings in the wrong context... "Slay Loopy", like really?
@@beyourself2444 I'm not Asian 😭
@@beyourself2444 you might be mistaken but I'm not Asian I just watched that show as a kid on YT
I grew up with Pororo. When I went to Korea last year. There were hair products with her face on it. My favorite meme has to be, everyones got this girl in their friend group, with an image of loopy in glasses.
Ok my toddler is a massice Pororo fan, that we watch it daily. I will never see Loopy the same way again lol.
as someone grew up with poporo, i always hated how loopy looked. i knew it.
people all over the world have trouble finding jobs, show me a place where that's not an issue. I living in London and lots barely scrape by ...
the work and the pressure in Chinese society is way different from the British one tho
Meanwhile in Australia we are struggling to find workers in certain fields 😊
@@xevxx13honestly britain would have better workforce plus a better education standard than all of china heck chinese people would prefer to be in europe than their own country
@@samuraiboi2735 better workforce? i don't really know maybe it's true... but better education? the national university entrance exam in China (the Gaokao) is the hardest uni exam of the world. Students prepare years for this exam as it determines their success in life in the future. Most British people wouldn't even be able to pass it with their current education (and I say this as a non-Chinese & non-British person, so I'm not biased)
@@xevxx13 british education meanwhile is considered high since students there would study very similar to what im studying in singapore since my subjects and my test papers are from british education and my test papers will be sent to cambridge to mark answers
Ohhh in latin america there's a meme about a plushie of this character but with a bobcut wig and glasses about how falling in love with a girl that look like that will ruin you
Same in southeast asia
@@Ashikaga-Tadayoshi nice try, bot. Tibet was already liberated from feudalism in 1948. Only a bunch of reactionaries and CIA assest actually want to retunt to the serfdom State
@@Ashikaga-Tadayoshi
Funny fake news and disinformation.
Tibetans began becoming literate and prospering after liberation from Theocracy !
whos the character?
Same in the United States of America
So basically Loopy it’s a Korean version of Aggretsuko
But Retsuko is a Korean red panda in the anime series... 😭
@@zavierong888 That’s why I said Aggretsuko as in the series! As is set in Japan not Korea
@@ELMATITV I'm talking about the character, Retsuko. She's a Korean migrant worker in Tokyo. She lived there for 5 years with her friends before everyone moved back to their respective hometowns. This includes Seoul, where Retsuko came from.
@@zavierong888 Is she Korean for real? I thought she was Japanese. Thanks for letting me know Korean Nationalist! 🇰🇷🇰🇷
Although what i meant was that the anime is Japanese and Loopy it’s Korean. That’s why I said it’s the Korean version of Aggretsuko.
I suddenly remembered the post on social media of this character's plushie, added with ponytail wig and round glasses. With the caption such as "there's always one of your classmates that looks like this"
it's like if squidward had a more cute/marketable design but had his original personality
Loopy representation Korean fake smile outside. Stress inside😅
the old man at the beginning loved loopy then most other do
kinda cute
Didn't see pororo for a decade at this point until i saw this video
Pororo , The Chad , The Penguin and The Legend
Not Barbie: the princess charm school movie becoming a meme for chinas unemployment problem
Being Singaporean and watching pororo as a kid really has changed my ways of seeing loopy now.
Ah yes, now we need Sanrio and Sega to collaborate
sounds like agretsuko of japan
Why is the pink one from Pororo doing Chinese factory working 😭😭😭
As a Chinese, i never heard of Loopy before watch this video
0:47 I want this store in my mall!
Loopy did get her own special about 10 years ago. "Loopy The Cooking Princess." Pre-dark Loopy, but I thought it was pretty funny feeding people kimchi to overcome constipation. th-cam.com/video/eDmHAfTVSm0/w-d-xo.html
Wow, I remember watching Pororo online in high school. WOW, has time changed!
I was shocked to see a serious channel posting serious video about the pink chubby bear 😭
pororo was my childhood 😂
same
Me too
Yeah, I used to be a diehard Pororo fan, and I NEVER FOUND OUT about the Loopy thing.
@@SumiTheTransitFan Yeah, same.
Past: China sends cultural envoys to "smaller brother" Korea.
Today: Korea sends meme formats to exploited Chinese labor force.
I was borned in 2002, man I watched this growing up
I remember loving Loopy when i was younger:(
I remember this when i was a child
I never knew the rest of the character's names except Pororo.. Didn't know she was called Loopy-
I remember seeing her when I was watching pororo during my childhood and was quite shock she became this popular
Pororo was my childhood. I first watched the show in Spanish on vme
Aint that a silly character from Pororo that wore glasses and a SE Asian hair
Yeah
1:02
Its like he’s presenting archeological finds
0:08 My brain: “I’ve been away too long, way too long”
Istg i see this character with glasses too often
what did they do to my girl loopy 😭😭😭
As half korean growing up watching pororo i didn't notice that loopy blews up because of lily pichu meme I'm glad that my favorite cartoon show gains popularity since china love thid character
Pororo Lore going hard.
I never knew that loopy was that famous
Peppapig levelled up. Fascinating stuff, ty
This video makes memes seem so serious
Loopy got fed up 😂😭
What is that thumbnail?! 😭💀
Wouldnt something like that be banned in CN? Or is the character being subtle about the representing message that the authorities arent noticing?
no way the authorities don't notice. I believe it's just that loopy seems harmless and subtle enough. The party is not going to be paranoid of people simply expressing emotions.
Dude, China isn't North Korea.
Besides, being discontent with capitalism isn't exactly a threat to the government
@@el-karasu6070 Their internet, social media is fire-walled off and heavily policed. To the extent your social credit are tied to the platforms and will be impacted should you engage in any none conforming rhetoric. External media is reviewed very eccentrically if it can be allowed into the country or not. You are not allowed to post something directly to someone from China. Your mail is sent to the government and they will review its contents before sending it on to whomever individual its intended for.
All corporations over a certain size are automatically linked to the government, having a department specifically for a"government official to ensure the company operates within the government restrictions. That department does act on a wide variety of aspects for the government. But that includes censorship etc for anything that does not fit the government agenda/narrative.
This all is just scraping the tip of the ice berg. But its not impossible for the citizens to stand against the gov. There has in fact been a few occasions where public backlash and outrage have forced the gov to step back some extreme oversteps.
Also most importantly their social credit system which is designed to monitor your real and online life and give you a social credit score. These scores and vastly affect your everyday life should you fall below a certain threshold. Being unable to ride the trains, shop in certain areas, just in general be able to go to certain areas. Worst of all if its low enough then you will be routinely stopped if you are traveling between areas as a warning will come up for police that you need to be checked, searched etc.
You are 100% right, yes CN isn't North Korea. But North Korea is practically a giant prison with majority of the country doesnt even have electricity. In North Korea there isnt even a infrastructure to support the commercialization of a bear on both media and physical apparel. But both countries do have concentration camps. NK is much worst with theirs but does not down play how bad China is with their camps. Go look up on the tons of people in just the recent decades that has been taken in by the government, never to resurface as they were probably wasted away in those camps. Or at least harvest for ... o . r. g ... an. ..s
Heres a quick experiment you can try right now, go to google maps and view china. You will see a lot of gibberish and nothing really lining with up places and streets names there. That is intentional, they want to keep that internal. Any foreign occupant is not allowed to view names of streets or areas on google maps. Because the gov has a hand on keeping it that way. The NK / China comparison is like comparing a bird in a bird cage to a bird in an enclosure at a zoo. Sure one is more restricted than the other, but both are restricted.
I think they only care if that frustration is against the government
being like "i get so frustrated at work sometimes!" isn't a true threat to the chinese government
Loopy kind of sounds like Aggretsuko as far as being a cute character that has a lot of anger and venting that they do.
If you break the social contract of hard work = advancement, no surprise there will be discontent and change.
I guess she's basically the China version of Squidward.... like they have Pororo and we have SpongeBob where I live
The meme where she wears glasses and bangs
I USED TO WATCH PORORO THE PENGUIN WHEN I WAS LITTLE
I knew it, it’s one of the main cast of *Pororo the little penguin* ☺️
I think she's the plushie with the glasses on that looks like a nerd, it reminds me of that.
That explains why I saw a 2.5m tall Loopy at a mall with other big Loopy dolls and merch
This looks like the plot to Paranoia Agent
Paranoia agent fan spotted
Source trust me bro
great video! as a kpop fan from america I've always wondered what made loopy so famous
I love this. 🙌
군침이싹도노 합성물 하나가 만들어낸 나비효과 ⚈͒◡⚈͒
its so interesting how generational/cultural change is happening everywhere in the world
When you would rather eat bitter melon because its sweeter than going to work, that speaks volumes about China's economy and work culture.
Is it only China? Do you know a country where this is not the case?
@liam3284 Australia comes to mind. They have a significantly better work culture than China. They also pay a higher minimum wage ($15 USD) compared to China's $4 USD per hour. Their economy does not rely on cheap labor.
As a man from China 🇨🇳, our country is very miserable
-We have a lot of homeless people
-Human rights here is violated, we cannot speak anything against the government
-PHD graduates having no jobs
-Dangerous foods
-Educated people are leaving this country
-Unsafe buildings
-Ethnic minorities are being subjected to forced labor in factories
And people in other rich and well stabilished countries want to bring the Chinese comunism to ther countries 🤷♂️
I lived in China for 5 years. Saw some awesome aspects of the culture and met some wonderful people, but yes, China has a plethora of problems that they pretend don't exist and cover up any evidence for.
This applies to the majority of countries.
Bro, have you seen North Korea?
Indian bot
This is SO interesting!!!
China’s “literally me”?
Truly a Waldo moment.
Loopy+Sanrio
Not a sanrio loopy- But sanrio ''Hello Kitty'' it's pororo ''loopy''
Yeahh i loved pororo as a kid she was so girly pop ❤
It's only because this character become famous.
there are tons of similar meme using different figures.
average south park episode Pororo edition
Looks nice on the outside but looks menacing in the inside 🙃
i sent my friends and classmates this video
and loopy became a meme by my classmates and friends
2:09 Scarier than a ghost to be honest.
Why am I getting pororo in my recommended I haven't watched that in years
Everywhere is dealing with overworking.
i used to watch pororo, never thought it would be a large part of the disgruntled and tired working class of china
The guy whose parents wanted him to take the civil servant exam has an amazing jawline. Let him know a stranger online sends him a complement if you’re still in contact with the people you interviewed
10:56 this is from a barbie movie not a series. Anyway great video I never heard of Loopy until now
Ive seen this bear before
이제 뽀로로 다른캐릭터 수익보다 더클듯
5:10 hello carbot
It’s like Dilbert a stirical cartoon of white-collar office worker in America. I am sad them stop the production.
Wait is that the bear thing I saw with the asian girl wig and glasses on the internet one time, I have literally no idea what this show is
ever wondered why most of these "fed up" memes is mostly recycled from cartoon characters from childhood? loopy, barbie, teletubbies, shinchan, etc. its almost like most gen z love to cling to their innocent days, feeling like they never felt "grown up" like a child in grown body.
I mean yeah? Most Gen Z are young adults and teenagers with Millennials now becoming the middle aged generation. Of course we don’t feel quite like adults yet. We only just got here.