''Kuso'' is a term used in

East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

for the

internet culture Internet culture refers to culture developed and maintained among frequent and active users of the Internet (also known as netizens) who primarily communicate with one another as members of online communities; that is, a culture whose influence ...

that generally includes all types of

camp Camp may refer to: Areas of confinement, imprisonment, or for execution * Concentration camp, an internment camp for political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or minority ethnic groups * Extermination ...

and

parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...

. In

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

, is a word that is commonly translated to English as curse words such as

fuck ''Fuck'' () is profanity in the English language that often refers to the act of sexual intercourse, but is also commonly used as an intensifier or to convey disdain. While its origin is obscure, it is usually considered to be first attested ...

shit ''Shit'' is an English-language profanity. As a noun, it refers to fecal matter, and as a verb it means to defecate; in the plural ("the shits"), it means diarrhea. ''Shite'' is a common variant in British and Irish English. As a slang ...

damn Damnation (from Latin '' damnatio'') is the concept of divine punishment after death for sins that were committed, or in some cases, good actions not done, on Earth. In Ancient Egyptian religious tradition, it was believed that citizens would ...

, and

bullshit ''Bullshit'' (also ''bullshite'' or ''bullcrap'') is a common English expletive which may be shortened to the euphemism ''bull'' or the initialism B.S. In British English, "bollocks" is a comparable expletive. It is mostly a slang term and a ...

(both ''kuso'' and ''shit'' refer to

feces Feces (also known as faeces American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, or fæces; : faex) are the solid or semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the small intestine, and has been broken down by bacteria in the ...

), and is often said as an

interjection An interjection is a word or expression that occurs as an utterance on its own and expresses a spontaneous feeling, situation or reaction. It is a diverse category, with many different types, such as exclamations ''(ouch!'', ''wow!''), curses (''da ...

. It is also used to describe outrageous matters and objects of poor quality. This usage of ''kuso'' was brought into

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

around 2000 by young people who frequently visited Japanese websites and quickly became an

internet phenomenon Internet phenomena are social and cultural phenomena specific to the Internet, such as Internet memes, which include popular catchphrases, images, viral videos, and jokes. When such fads and sensations occur online, they tend to grow rapidly ...

, spreading to Taiwan and

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

and subsequently to

mainland China "Mainland China", also referred to as "the Chinese mainland", is a Geopolitics, geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addit ...

From Japanese ''kusogē'' to Taiwanese ''kuso''

The root of Taiwanese "''kuso''" was not the

word ''kuso'' itself but . The word ''kusogē'' is a

clipped compound In linguistics, a clipped compound is a word produced from a compound word by reducing its parts while retaining the meaning of the original compound.Elisa Mattiello, "An Introduction to English Slang: A Description of Its Morphology, Semantics and ...

of and , meaning "crappy (video) games". This term was eventually brought outside of Japan and its meaning shifted in the West, becoming a term of endearment (and even a category) towards either bad games of nostalgic value and/or poorly-developed games that still remain enjoyable as a whole. This philosophy soon spread to Taiwan, where people would share the games and often satirical comments on BBSes, and the term was further shortened. Games generally branded as ''kuso'' in Taiwan include '' Hong Kong 97'' and the '' Death Crimson'' series. Because ''kusogē'' were often unintentionally funny, soon the definition of ''kuso'' in Taiwan shifted to "anything hilarious", and people started to brand anything outrageous and funny as ''kuso''. Parodies, such as the Chinese robot

Xianxingzhe Xianxingzhe () is the first bipedal humanoid robot in China, created in 2000 by the Chinese National University of Defense Technology in Changsha, Hunan. The robot, standing 140 cm tall and weighing 20 kg, walks at a pace of two steps per s ...

ridiculed by a Japanese website, were marked as ''kuso''. ''

Mo lei tau ''Mo lei tau'' () is a type of slapstick humour associated with Hong Kong popular culture that developed during the late 20th century. It is a phenomenon that has grown largely from its presentation in modern film media. Its humour arises from ...

'' films by

Stephen Chow Stephen Chow Sing-chi (; born 22 June 1962) is a Hong Kong filmmaker and former actor, known for his mo lei tau comedy. His career began in television, where he gained recognition through variety shows and TV dramas. Chow's breakthrough came in 1 ...

are often said to be ''kuso'' as well. The

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

is often a subject of parody too, with songs such as ''

I Love Beijing Tiananmen "I Love Beijing Tiananmen" (formerly written "I love Peking Tiananmen") (), is a children's song written during the Cultural Revolution of China. History The lyrics to the song were written by Jin Guolin, a 12-year-old student who was in 5th g ...

'' spread around the internet for laughs. Some, however, limit the definition of ''kuso'' to "humour limited to those about

Hong Kong comics Hong Kong comics are comics originally produced in Hong Kong. History Sun Yat-Sen established the Republic of China in 1911 using Hong Kong's comics to circulate anti- Qing propaganda. Some of the comics that mirrored the early struggles o ...

or Japanese

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

, and games". ''Kuso'' by such definitions are primarily

doujin In Japan, a is a group of people who share an interest, activity, or hobby. The word is sometimes translated into English as "clique", "fandom", "coterie", "society", or "circle" (as in "sewing circle"). Self-published creative works produ ...

fanfiction Fan fiction or fanfiction, also known as fan fic, fanfic, fic or FF, is fiction typically written in an amateur capacity by fans as a form of fan labor, unauthorized by, but based on, an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted ...

Fictional crossover A crossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discrete fictional characters, settings, or universes into the context of a single story. They can arise from legal agreements between the relevant copyright holders (known as intercompany ...

s are common media for ''kuso'', such as redrawing certain

bishōjo In Japanese popular culture, a , also romanized as ''bishojo'' or ''bishoujo'', is a cute girl character. characters appear ubiquitously in media including manga, anime, and computerized games (especially in the ''bishojo'' game genre), and al ...

anime in the style of ''

Fist of the North Star is a Japanese manga series written by Buronson and illustrated by Tetsuo Hara. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' for 245 issues published from 1983 to 1988 and initially collected in 27 volumes ...

'', or blending elements of two different items together. (For example, in '' Densha de D'', both ''

Initial D is a Japanese street racing manga series written and illustrated by Shuichi Shigeno. It was serialized in Kodansha's manga magazine ''Weekly Young Magazine'' from 1995 to 2013, with the chapters collected into 48 volumes. The ...

'' and '' Densha de Go!'' are parodied, as Takumi races trains and drifts his railcar across multiple railway tracks.) In

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, earlier ''e'gao'' works consisted of images edited in

Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc., Adobe for Microsoft Windows, Windows and macOS. It was created in 1987 by Thomas Knoll, Thomas and John Knoll. It is the most used tool for professional digital ...

. An example of this would be the Little Fatty internet meme.

Compared to ''e'gao''

In Chinese, ''kuso'' is called "''e'gao''" (), with the first character meaning "evil" or "gross" and the second meaning "to make unof omeone/something" In 2007 the word was so new that it was not listed in Chinese dictionaries.Wu, Jiao.
E'gao: Art criticism or evil?
''

China Daily ''China Daily'' ( zh, s=中国日报, p=Zhōngguó Rìbào) is an English-language daily newspaper owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party. Overview ''China Daily'' has the widest print circulation of any ...

''. January 22, 2007. Retrieved on January 25, 2012. According to Christopher Rea, "''E'gao'', the main buzzword associated with online Chinese parody, literally means 'evil doings' or 'malicious manipulation; he notes that ''e'gao''s "semantic associations

o ''kuso'' O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), p ...

can be misleading, however, since ''e'gao'' is not fundamentally scatological—or even, as the Chinese term might suggest, malicious. In its broad usage, it may be applied to parody of any stripe, from fan tribute-mimicry to withering mockery. In a more restricted sense, it refers the practice of digitally manipulating mass culture products to comic effect and circulating them via the internet. The term ''e'gao'' may thus be interpreted in multiple senses, as it denotes variously a genre, a mode, a practice, an ethos and a culture."Christopher Rea, "Spoofing (e'gao) Culture on the Chinese Internet". In ''Humour in Chinese Life and Culture: Resistance and Control in Modern Times''. Jessica Milner Davis and Jocelyn Chey, eds. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2013, p. 151.

References

Sources

* Meng, Bingchun.
From Steamed Bun to Grass Mud Horse: E Gao as alternative political discourse on the Chinese Internet
." ''

Global Media and Communication Global may refer to: General *Globe, a spherical model of celestial bodies *Earth, the third planet from the Sun Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 198 ...

''. April 2011. Vol. 7. No. 1. Pages 33–51. DOI 10.1177/1742766510397938.
Christopher Rea
"Spoofing (e’gao) Culture on the Chinese Internet." I
Humour in Chinese Life and Culture: Resistance and Control in Modern Times
. Jessica Milner Davis and Jocelyn Chey, eds. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2013, p. 151.

Citations

External links