Why does the internet love Chinese-speaking foreigners? Yum cha kor may have the answer
- Gurdip Singh, a marine technician from Singapore who urged his fans in flawless Cantonese not to work so hard and to drink some tea, has become the latest in a long line of viral sensations
- China-watchers say the attention is partly due to growing national pride and that the focus is shifting from marvelling at someone’s language skills to whether they have a China-friendly message
The latest sensation to have taken over people’s news feeds is Gurdip Singh, 54, a Singapore-based marine technician who has won a legion of fans for his fluent Cantonese.
Known to his fans as yum cha kor, or “tea-drinking brother”, Singh gained almost 560,000 followers on video-sharing platform Bilibili this month for a clip in which – in fluent Cantonese – he advises people not to work so hard and drink more tea.
It is a sentiment that has clearly chimed with a new generation of Chinese who are embracing a trend known as tang ping (literally “lying flat”) to protest against what they see as a culture of gruelling work with little reward.
China-watchers put the popularity of the ‘Chinese-speaking-foreigner meme’ down to various reasons, from comic relief and curiosity about strangers to flattery and pride over the country’s rising influence, and even rising nationalism. At the same time, they say Singh’s sudden fame shows how the meme is evolving; no longer are people marvelling simply at the foreigner’s linguistic abilities – such as Singh’s mastery of Cantonese tones – they are now paying attention to the message itself, in Singh’s case his advice to “lie flat”.
Yum Cha Kor
In the video Singh, armed with a packet of tea, bellows at viewers: “No use working so hard, your boss won’t love you for it. Have some tea first, it’s three something [in the afternoon].”
