In recent years, a popular phrase has emerged among Chinese social media: The world is a chaotic troupe. Which seem to be a modern fable, validated by an array of incidents: Evergrande Group, once valued at 184 billion dollars, faced a financial crisis with a reported debt of 300 billion dollars in 2021; the Olympic flag was accidentally hung upside down in the 2024 Paris Olympics; during the pandemic, anti-epidemic policies changed frequently, and so on. This article treats the phrase as a symbolic representation of the disenchantment wave in Chinese society. By tracing the dissemination trajectory and semantic evolution of this expression, the paper seeks to demonstrate how this phrase serves as a public reaction to complex social realities and elucidates its potential social functions. From the perspectives of cultural studies and social psychology, it argues that it has become a cultural strategy of self-regulation and self-consolation in contemporary China. The findings reveal that this phrase reflects a humorous response to the uncertainty of social order against a backdrop of deconstructed authority, modern anxiety, and collective value disillusionment. Rather than being a continuation of China's New Enlightenment Movement since the 1980s, this can be better understood as a cultural production of collective precarity.

Authors:
Peng Wu, University of Gloucestershire, United Kingdom

About the Presenter(s)
Peng Wu (Will) is currently a doctoral candidate in Music and Sound at the University of Gloucestershire, UK. His primary research interests include cultural studies, popular music, and contemporary Chinese culture.

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