Duang! China finds many uses for word with no meaning

It’s a Chinese character that has come out of nowhere, but the word “duang” has taken the internet by storm, even though no one really knows what the meme means.

Basically, if you think that your hair is looking particularly good today, in Chinese popular culture, it’s looking “duang”.

We do know where "duang" started – it was Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan who, in 2004, was featured in a shampoo infomercial, where he spread his hands and described how his sleek dark locks would simply "duang" after a scrub with Bawang organic shampoo.

A useful way of translating it is as “boing”, in the sense of “bouncy and vibrant”, or even “ta-da!”

It has become to Chinese slang what Kim Kardashian’s rear end is to US popular culture. It’s breaking the internet. A Chinese pop star is “duang pretty”.

It has been widely interpreted as “cool” and the word resurfaced again recently after Chan posted it on his Weibo page.

Although it’s a long way from featuring in a dictionary, it has now been used millions of times on the Chinese social network Weibo, and has been looked up 1.5 million times on China’s biggest search engine, Baidu.

In case you’re “duang confused”, Chan has never been an easy figure to follow.

“Everyone’s ‘duang-ing’ and it’s great” or “This is so duang hot” are the kind of comments you see on the Weibo social network.

There have also been numerous mash-up videos, and apparently during the visit of Britain's Prince William to China last week, he was greeted by some people saying "duang, duang" because the English landed gentry look is seen as extremely cool in China.

Chan was a supporter of the 1989 pro-democracy protests in China, but in recent years he has become much more pro-Beijing. Last year, he spoke out against the Occupy Central democracy protests in Hong Kong democracy protests, and he is a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body to the ongoing National People’s Congress, China’s annual parliament.

Questioned outside the Great Hall of the People about what he thought of the phenomenon, Chan said: “It’s quite funny.”

A former anti-drugs ambassador here in China, Chan was in the news most recently when his son Jaycee was arrested and jailed on drugs charges last year. On release from prison, father and son spent some quality time together and Jackie gave Jaycee a haircut, shaving his locks and leaving his son a skinhead. Perhaps the previous mane was too “duang”.