鸭子缘何成为社交媒体的宠儿？How did ducks become a social media favorite?

"Need to cheer up today(今天也要加油呀)", a duck-themed meme, has become popular on Chinese social media in China. [File photo]

Neither(既不) the dog(狗) — the zodiac animal of 2018 — nor(也不) the widely beloved cats(猫) and rabbits(兔子), have become an extremely popular(受欢迎的) creatures on social media in China this year.

That honor has, instead, gone to the ducks(鸭子).

Why, you may wonder? What did these wiggling and waddling things do to win the love of Chinese netizens? What can they contribute, apart from gracing restaurant tables or becoming down garments? 

" Go for it(冲呀)", a duck-themed meme, has become popular on Chinese social media in China. [File photo]

They can, in fact, be repurposed as popular memes, as the pronunciation of "duck" is "ya". This is the same as an interjection of exclamation(呀) in the Chinese language.

Such memes include "I don't want to work today," " Go for it" and " Need to cheer up today". Normal ducks, or duck-shaped cartoon characters and statues, are widely used.

"Good heavens(苍天呀)", a duck-themed meme, has become popular on Chinese social media in China. [File photo]

After coming out around mid-2018, they have dwarfed other animal emojis(表情包) and have become many young Chinese people's favorites on social media.

Here are some widely used duck-themed memes, from which you can learn about humorous homophones(谐音) in the Chinese language.

“Just off duty(刚下班呀)”, a duck-themed meme, has become popular on Chinese social media in China. [File photo]

词汇 Words:

[yā zi] 鸭子 duck
[māo] 猫 cat
[gǒu] 狗 dog
[tù zi] 兔子 rabbit
[xié yīn] 谐音 homophone
[jì bù...... yě bù......] 既不……也不…… neither...nor... 

重点词汇 Key word:

• 呀 <叹词 interjection> wow
  Ya, tāmen bǎ jiàoshì nòng de luànqī-bāzāo。
  呀,他们把教室弄的乱七八糟。
  Wow, what a mess they've made of the classroom.