中2015
chouxiang wenhua, abstract culture
Chinese ironic nonsense shitposting subculture
Meaning
It denotes deliberately nonsensical ironic shitposting tied to Chinese streamer fandom. The tone is playful and mock-insulting among insiders yet confusing to outsiders. It is mainly used by young netizens who know livestream jokes.
Origin
It is commonly credited to Abstract Studio founded around 2015 by Li Gan and Sun Xiaochuan. The style grew on Douyu through homophones, abbreviations and emoji writing. It spread beyond Douyu around 2018 and turned more harmless. No single first post is documented.
How it's used
People say they are doing abstract when posting absurd riddles or derailing a thread. It works as a noun for the subculture and as an adjective for abstract talk. It does not inflect in English use.
Example
He dropped another abstract joke in the group chat and nobody could decode it.
Variants & related
Common forms are doing abstract, abstract talk and abstract literature. Related memes include Sun Xiaochuan bar in-jokes and Douyu danmaku humor, while the opposite is serious explainer posting. Romanization varies slightly.
Common misunderstandings
Outsiders wrongly link it to abstract art or philosophy. It is not sincere hate speech despite insulting roots. Using it formally sounds rude or clueless.