Jackie Chan has been in the news for weird reasons lately.
First he cuts his son’s hair, then he suggests that his son go back to jail every year, and now there’s a brand-new character in the Chinese lexicon inspired by his Jackie Channess.
This new character, pronounced “duang” (or “dwahng”, if you’re not versed in pinyin), consists of the two characters of Jackie Chan’s last name stacked one on top of the other.
Jackie Chan first uttered the word himself back in a 2004 shampoo commercial.
In the ad he talks about how he didn’t want viewers to think he was selling a product he hasn’t tried, since a lot of commercials go to special lengths to make actors’ hair look extra awesome.
“They’ll add special effects after the ad is shot, so that the hair is like ‘DUANNGGG’, so black, so shiny.”
Perhaps the best translation in this context would be “boing”.
For some reason, the video recently resurfaced on the Chinese interwebz, going viral.
Now the word “duang” has appeared over eight million times on microblogging site Weibo, according to the BBC, leaving the non-Chinese speaking world scratching its head.
“Duang” has since taken on a life its own, and doesn’t really have a set meaning anymore.
Originally used by some to denote something that exhibits forgery through special effects, you can now use it as a verb (“Have you duang-ed today?”), an adverb (“I’m so duang hungry”), or in any other way you want, really.
Chinese netizens were at first spelling it out in Roman characters, but someone eventually came up with the Chinese character.
Even Jackie Chan himself has jumped on the duang-wagon!
We don’t know about you guys, but we just want to sing “duang” to the tune of the “Thong Song” by Sisqo.
Duang, duang, duang, duang duang. Let me see that duang!
H/T: The Nanfang
