Bilibili users sent the Chinese word “Ah?Ah?Japan” over 13.2 million times as a bullet comment on the video site over the course of 2023, serving as a brief way for viewers to express surprise in response to content creators showing off their skills, or to discovering “treasured content” and witnessing major technological breakthroughs via the site’s videos. The platform labeled “Ah?” as the annual bullet subtitle of 2023 in cooperation with the state-affiliated institution China Cultural Relics Exchange Center and National Museum of Chinese Writing last week. Bullet comments are so-called because of the way they shoot across the screen when posted by users watching a video. 2023 marks the seventh consecutive year that Bilibili, the video-streaming platform highly favored by Chinese millennials and Gen Z, has published the most representative bullet comment. The phrase of the year last year was “youya”, or “elegant” in English, which was used to complement impressive videos. [Bilibili, in Chinese]
