Luisa's blog

RQ1: W hat messages do Buddhist styled youths memes communicate?  RQ2: How do they relate to Buddhist beliefs and practices? Buddhist styled employee (version1) (From left to right) I work overtime. Not verbose.  No complains. I do what my boss askes me to do.  I don’t escape or resist. ? will come with karma. Promotion/Death Buddhist styled employee    (version2) Not punctual.  Never work over time.  No business trip.  No intrigue. I don’t care my achievement.  I don’t care my boss.  I don’t whether I’ll be fired. My salary will come with karma. Questions: Do you think Buddhist styled youths memes creators really understand Buddhism as a religion? Do I need to introduce  Buddhism more? If I do, where should I introduce more?

Article by Bellar et al. (2013) studies religious-oriented Internet memes in a framework of participatory culture and lived religion. Researchers apply visual and narrative analysis in online observation to study three specific areas: meme construction, use of humor to frame religious discourse and audience reception. They find that memes can change dominate religion-related discourses or stereotypes by reinforce them challenge them. Future areas of investigation are also directed: pay attention to context, intertextuality, comparative work and emotive discourse and analyze memes as essentialized religion. Their study is especially helpful to my research in terms of the framework, analysis method and investigation direction. Buddhist styled youths memes is popular on social media in China, there are high participatory in its consumption and production. Moreover, Buddhist styled youths memes is related to Buddhism but made by atheists so it can be considered as “l...

Shifman summarizes some elements of viral success and memetic success in his book Memes in digital culture . Participation is a feature of both viral and memetic success. Participation means "viral dissemination may be enhanced if people are encouraged not only to share a certain item, but also to carry out other activities related to it"(2014, p.72). When the concept of "Buddhist styled youths" memes got popular in social media, many users participate in expansion of the memes to "Buddhist styled" plus any occupation or identities such as "Buddhist styled employees", "Buddhist styled teachers", "Buddhist styled mothers".  "Many successful campaigns depend not only on sharing content but also on the active engagement of users in re-creating or appropriating items"(2014, p.72). The joint meaning creation becomes a campaign that everyone is contributing to the expansion of the "Buddhist styled" memes and crat...

My new research question is: How do "Buddhist styled youths" memes borrow ideas from Buddhism believes and play with in practical ways? Based on my new research question and the criteria I set out in last week's blog, I select ten memes to explore my study. https://kknews.cc/zh-my/news/288qgme.html BUDDHIST STYLED MAKING MONEY DON’T STRUGGLE. WEALTH WILL COME WITH KARMA https://spotlights.news/page/3995 Buddhist styled graduates I don’t read paper. I don’t write paper. I don’t attend conferences. I don’t want to think of my study or graduate. I just keep staring at my PC everyday. I will get my degree with karma. https://cg2010studio.com/2018/04/11/%E5%9C%96%E8%A7%A3-%E4%BD%9B%E7%B3%BB%E4%B8%8A%E7%8F%AD%E6%97%8F/ Buddhist styled employee Not punctual. Never work over time. No business trip. No intrigue. I don’t care my achievement. I don’t care my bo...