By Wang Hai, caricatured by Yang Mingzhuo
Browsing social media, one may notice that young Chinese people seem to have developed a preference to “offering” their “knees” to outstanding ones when showing their admiration.
The “knee-receivers” can be exceptional people in some fields, soul touching works, powerful organizations, strong state that holds people first, Mother Nature, etc. The reason for choosing knees as a symbol of admiration lies in the common impulsion of kneeling down when people get captivated or overwhelmed by excellency and beauty. The buzz phrase about presenting knees to others shares the same meaning with “mom asks me why I am kneeling while watching this”, a frequently spotted sentence in comments for videos or pictures. Breaking from the traditional expression to show respect, knees-offering related buzzwords provides young people a more carefree and natural way to speak out their admiration towards great ones accepted by the public, as well as outstanding people in their eyes.
China Report ASEAN 