Luisa's blog

My study focuses on "Buddhist styled youths". I search Chinese character of 佛系青年(Buddhist styled youths) or 佛系(Buddhist styled) on Google because Google can not find those memes when searching in English. All the memes I will study were posted after December 2017.  Visual expressions of Buddhist elements (such as cross-legged gesture, golden lights, lotus, etc.) must be shown in samples. Moreover, these memes should be subtitled with descriptions of a life style or attitude. Some of the subtitles even start with "Buddhist styled...".  The expression of Buddhist elements is a key character of Buddhist styled memes especially when the subtitles do not mention "Buddhist styled". In addition, a group of people with particular life style is named as "Buddhist styled youth". So  "Buddhist styled" is actually a description of a series of attitudes.These criteria guarantees that the samples I select is related to "Buddhist styled" t...

My research explores the theme of   “Buddhist styled youths” related to how Internet memes illustrate Chinese youngsters’ identities as “Buddhist styled”, which means low-desire, non-ambition, tolerance and depression of emotional fluctuation. My proposed research questions are: First, what made the Buddhist styled youths memes so successful that most youngsters identified themselves as Buddhist styled youths? Second, what are the relationships between Buddhism and Buddhist styled youths memes? In order to answer this question, I will study 10 Internet memes related to how Buddhist styled youths memes express the idea of Buddhist styled way of thinking. Memes will be selected on the basis of the following criteria: include elements of Buddhism (such as lotus, golden lights, cross-legged gesture, etc.), appearing online in last 12 months, text reference Buddhist styled way of thinking (low-desire, non-ambition, tolerance and depression of emotional fluctuati...