This question may sound mundane. While during the October holiday period, thousands of common people from all walks of life and from literally all places of the country were interviewed by CCTV (Central China Television) reporters the same question, it became the No.1 frequently asked question in China since then. And the truth is varied answers collected by the hard-working reporters are actually way funnier than the question itself. “My surname is Zeng” is generally regarded as the most classic answer for the question. It was made by a migrant worker from west China’s Shanxi province. The trick is the Chinese pronunciation of “Are you happy with your life?” sounds the same with the Chinese question “Is your surname Fu?” So, when being asked by a sincere young reporter of CCTV, the hard-nosed worker corrected, “No, My last name is Zeng.” The whole country applauded the honest worker for his unintentional “humor”.

No. 2: Diaos

Diaos is thought to be the most talented coinage in 2012, which refers to the group of youth who are not pretty or handsome and don’t have well-paid jobs or rich families to lean on. In one word, Diaos is the under-privileged youth who could only rely on their own talents and hard work for a shabby existence. The phrase is initially coined to set off the other hot word “Gao Shuai Fu” which means “tall, handsome, and rich”. Without a doubt, Diaos means the opposite of “Gao Shuai Fu”. And, once getting out, the funny coinage not only got the attention of mainstream media like People’s Daily and Sina.Com but strike a resonance in the general public who are also self-reliant common people.

Gangnam Style, a hit song by South Korean singer PSY, became a global phenomenon in 2012. Soon, a“style”craze engulfed the cyberspace.People talked about Shanghai style, Diaos style, pre-school style and even the aircraft carrier style (the deck staff of China’s carrier made funny gestures indicating aircrafts to take off, the common public got so amused that they rushed to produce their own editions of the gestures online). Sanxia Zaixian personally holds that maybe Gangnam Style would be gone with the wind soon, but the “style” craze would stay to keep coloring our lives.

No.4: Can I spit four-letter words?

“Can I spit four-letter words?”asked a citizen when requested by a reporter to comment on the ever-rising gasoline prices. After getting a negative reply, the citizen then said, “No? then no comments.” The video clip containing the cool response soon spread on the Internet, and when harsh social realities were being discussed, like a public servant owning twenty houses, people would use the classic reply“Could I speak four-letter words?”to show their indignation.

No. 5: I would not believe in love ever again.

No one could determine the original source of the remark. But one thing that could be assured is that the remark now is most frequently quoted in reaction to celebrity breakups, which do happen a lot these days.

“I feel tired. I think I would not love again.” The ultra-sentimental remark comes from the post of a 13-year-old, and thus shocked tens of thousands of big brothers and sisters online. Later, netizens with a good sense of humor began to use the remark to make “pretentious” sentence to express their exaggerated depression for something or someone. Like, if you got fed with playing World of Warcraft, a hit online game, you could say, “Tired of it, I’m afraid I would not love again.”

No. 7: I could not stand it any time.

This catch remark came from Weibo, China’s version of twitter. A while ago, a micro-blogger nicknamed Korean Miss Cui began to distribute news in the fake name of a North Korean medium. Her humorous remarks like “could not stand it any time,”“report your longitude and latitude” or “take it seriously” began to catch the attention of some celebrity micro-bloggers like real estate tycoon Pan Shiyi and was widely circulated among the netizens.

No. 8: Positive Energy

Before you could notice, the word “positive energy”is becoming more than common in the newspapers, periodicals, magazines, books and advocacy slogans. Many bloggers also like to quote the phrase to energize themselves or others. Sanxia Zaixian thinks the overwhelming spread of the phrase indicates the commonly positive mindset of most people and their aspiration and longing for a better world.

What’s the most “in” talent show in China? Yes, the answer would definitely be The Voice of China. The TV program is so hot that the brand name also evolved into a life of its own. Now, on the internet, all inspiringly good things are labeled XX of China.

Yuanfang, what do you think? When the hit question first came out, the man named Yuanfang faced the question over a million times per day on the Internet. If Yuanfang is a real human being, he would either be tired to death or be bored to death. Then who is Yuanfang indeed? He is a character with full name Li Yuanfang from a hit TV show Big Detective Di Renjie, in which, the hero, detective Di would always inquire his deputy Yuanfang for opinions about cases they dealt with. The dialogue would always go like this: “Yuanfang, what do you think of the case?”“Oh, I smelled something fishy.” The monotonous lines were thus joked and copied by netizens to inquire ideas about almost everything, big or small. Like, “Yuanfang, my mother demanded me to wear chill-cool, what do you think?” or “Yuanfang, I believe the Diaoyu islands should belong to China, what do you think?”