See here for a full list of transcripts

[Trailer]

Katherine WONG: They look like ballerinas from the 70s.

[Intro]

OF: Welcome to Mosaic of China, a podcast about people who are making their mark in China. I’m your host, Oscar Fuchs. 

So today we’re taking about WeChat stickers, which makes this kinda the craziest of these 10 compilation episodes from Season 02. And I say that for two reasons. The first is that it’s a bit crazy to devote an entire episode to something that’s 100% visual. So if you don’t have access to the images on social media, listening to today’s compilation will be a slightly bewildering experience. And the second reason it’s crazy is that if you are following on social media - specifically if you’re in one of the listeners groups on WeChat - then you’re going to be deluged with a reminder of all the favourite stickers chosen by the guests of Season 02. So as much as I’ve tried to engineer these groups to be as low-impact as possible, today is where all the rules are temporarily suspended, and you’re suddenly going to find yourself in the most obnoxious place on WeChat. 

So with that warning in place, let’s listen to how the guests from Season 02 answered the question: “What’s your favourite WeChat sticker?”

[Main]

[Voiceover]

OF: Murray King, the public affairs leader from Episode 29.

[Clip] 

MK: It's a great question actually, because I communicate more by stickers than by text. So there's a series of WeChat stickers which is called 小刘 [Xiǎo Liú], Little Liu. 

OF: Yeah.

MK: And it's actually, you know, a couple of characters. There’s a duck, and there's a cat, and I think there are a couple of other characters that occasionally make an appearance. And I just think that the designs are brilliant. And it's just super fun, and a little bit naughty. And yeah, that's me.

OF: Now, here's a funny thing. When I interviewed a diplomat in Season 01 - he worked for the New Zealand consulate here - he was always careful about stickers, because they can be misconstrued. And when you give me this cheeky naughtiness, that's kind of what he was slightly worried about. So he doesn't use WeChat stickers. Do you think if you were still a diplomat, you would have these stickers?

MK: I think these are cheeky and naughty, but they're not even close to crossing the line of being inappropriate. Although there are some others that are probably less appropriate. I think if I was still a diplomat, I would be more careful about using WeChat. 

OF: At all.

MK: And I would certainly be careful about what I used. But I think these are harmless enough. I think the world has changed a lot as well. 

OF: Yeah. 

MK: You know, people are communicating more primitively, and yet in a more sophisticated way through things like videos and photos.

OF: Yeah. 

MK: And abbreviations, and emoticons, and gifs, and things like that.

OF: Yes. Let's go into the societal history about hieroglyphics, because that's what we're doing really, using gifs and using emojis, right?

MK: Right, right. 

OF: Very good, these are super cute.

MK: You'll be converted quickly, because there's a great range of stickers. All of my stickers are 小刘 [Xiǎo Liú] now.

OF: Beautiful.

[Voiceover]

OF: DJ BO, the DJ from Episode 23.

[Clip] 

BO: OK, now let's talk about this Oscar. 

OF: OK, send it to me first. 

BO: Got it?

OF: OK.

BO: Well, let's talk about this. So when I first listened to your podcast, and I heard this question, I really hated this question, because I generally don't like WeChat stickers. Because I like when people are talking with their heart, when they're really being sincere and truthful. So I like to write without spellcheck. I like to use full words. And when people are picking up WeChat stickers, they're obfuscating in a way. They're trying to be clever, but they're actually not even being clever, because it's not their own words or ideas. You're not engaging with the person, you're obfuscating. I don't like that. One of my favourite DJ jobs every week is, I DJ - Saturday mornings, usually starting at 7am - at F45, which is like a CrossFit gym and studio. And I would have to message the accountant for the money for the DJs each week. And for some reason, the manager saw my communication with the accountant and said “Please don't be rude to the accountant”. And I was really shocked. Because I wouldn't talk too much, but I would just say, you know "Please send this amount of money”. And I reflected on it, and I was like, maybe it's because I don't use WeChat stickers. There's no panda bowing, or any of the other ones that get used. There's no little cat, you know, running in a circle, or some ****. And I was like “I need to start engaging with this a bit”. But I also really respect copyright as much as I can. 

OF: Ah.

BO: So I decided that I wanted to use video or pictures, but only from public domain sources. And I love silent movies, especially. And so I started making my own WeChat stickers. And it started… they weren't necessarily very good, but I started getting better at it. I invented something called ‘poetremes’.

OF: Oh.

BO: A poetry meme, where I would take certain video, and I would add poetic elements to it.

OF: That's really interesting as a concept, right? So not to distil something into something small and visual, but actually to open something up.

BO: Yeah, I eventually want to start selling them on WeChat, and that's how I'm gonna make my fortune. I'm just kidding. But I've really enjoyed doing that. So I'll watch a movie that's in the public domain, and I'll take snapshots and I'll cut it up into clips that I can then use to make my own WeChat stickers. And now I have a huge collection of them. So I've really turned 180 degrees from what I believed initially.

OF: Thought-provoking.

[Voiceover]

OF: Cassandra Chen, the heavy metal bar owner from Episode 16.

[Clip] 

CC: So it's two of our regular customers drinking from a horn and doing cheers to each other. Yeah.

OF: And this was at one of the Viking Nights?

CC: Yes. 

OF: Yes, they look the part, I must say.

[Voiceover]

OF: Seth Harvey, the education coach from Episode 19.

[Clip]

SH: There are two types of WeChat stickers, right? There's ones that are pulled from like famous pop culture shows or cartoons and things, but you can actually make your own stickers. So my girlfriend sends me ones of her that she's made of herself. So then I find it really useful to send herself back to her. Like a little bit sarcastically. 

[Voiceover]

OF: Jamie Barys, the street food expert from Episode 02.

[Clip]

JB: My Beijing guides are really tech savvy. And I still don't know how to make my own WeChat stickers, but they have made several for me. My favourite one that they made is… my husband came to a team building dinner, and they just took a couple pictures of him and made it into a gif. And it just says in Chinese underneath it: 高富帅 [gāo fù shuài]. So like “Tall, rich and handsome.” I don't send it to people, but I just love it. It's so great.

OF: Wow.

[Voiceover]

OF: Michelle Qu, the improvisational comedian from Episode 20.

[Clip] 

MQ: I made it by myself. 

OF: Very good. So you did the makeup.

MQ: Yeah. 

OF: And what does it say? 

MQ: 回眸一笑百媚生 [Huímóu yīxiào bǎimèishēng]: That means “With this face, she turned back, with so much charm”.

[Voiceover]

OF: Chang Chihyun, the humanities professor from Episode 03.

[Clip]

CC: I love to use myself to create WeChat stickers.

OF: OK, and what does it say? It says…

CC: Over my dead body. And I am the body.

OF: It's a funny way of saying… 

CC: No.

[Voiceover]

OF: Cocosanti, the drag performer from Episode 05.

[Clip] 

C: The one I use the most is a flipping-the-hair-back kind of sticker. I use that too often, and it's mostly because I know when I was younger, I used to do that all the time. I'd be like, yep.

OF: And it's the tongue placement too.

C: Yeah, that’s… It's literally the face that I make all the time. 

OF: Oh that’s great. 

C: That is the sticker that I use the most.

[Voiceover]

OF: Danma Jyid, the Tibetan social enterprise leader from Episode 10.

[Clip] 

DJ: A little happy monk.

OF: Oh, he's a Buddhist monk.

DJ: Yeah, Buddhist monk

OF: Of course he is, I should have got that by the clothing.

[Voiceover]

OF: Sean Harmon, the beer company CEO from Episode 09.

[Clip] 

SH: I don't know why I love this sticker, but if you talk to my colleagues, they will say that I certainly overuse this sticker. It's Denzel Washington in Training Day, and he just says “Boom”. I don't know why, it just makes me laugh. And when you get good news at work, or something happens, where you know, you land an account and… Yeah, to celebrate a bit, just give an old Denzel “boom”.

OF: OK, I'm gonna use this one. That's a great one.

SH: It's also a great movie, if you haven't seen it. 

OF: I haven't seen it. 

SH: Check it out, it’s worth watching.

OF: It’s an action movie, is it?

SH: Yes, but with great dialogue. 

OF: OK. 

SH: Try it.

[Voiceover]

OF: Zhao Huiling, the Africa travel vlogger from Episode 28.

[Clip] 

ZH: So it's my newly favourite sticker. It's a smiley face. But it's a very awkward smiley face, with the eyes all twitched up. 

OF: Oh.

ZH: Basically, you know, the brave face that we have to throw on, as adults in this world. Knowing the negativity is out there, you just still have to continue.

OF: Yeah.

[Voiceover]

OF: Crystyl Mo, the fine dining expert from Episode 26.

[Clip] 

CM: Well, this is just a handy sticker. Because in WeChat groups, often people will accidentally send something, or say something inappropriate. And you just need to have a sticker for that occasion. It literally happens every day. So that's just a fun one.

OF: Can you quickly describe it?

CM: So this is a sticker that has just a giant button that says ‘unsee’. So this person is just frantically tapping this button. Unsee unsee unsee unsee. Like, please just take me back to five seconds previous in time and let me not have seen that thing.

OF: I've never seen this used. I love it.

CM: I hope you’ll start using it.

OF: Totally, how can I not?

[Voiceover]

OF: Alex Shoer, the clean energy entrepreneur from Episode 11.

[Clip] 

AS: So my favourite WeChat sticker is ‘mind explosion’, is the best way I can describe it. And it's the scientist with the mind exploding. It can change the dynamic of a conversation very quickly.

[Voiceover]

OF: Ajay Jain, the car designer from Episode 21.

[Clip] 

AJ: The one I send quite often - and I've been known to send it to my friends - is the ‘Happy Friday’ sticker. I don't actually look for the sticker, it just comes up when I write ‘TGIF’. And it's become a thing that I send a whole bunch of friends, ‘Happy Friday’.

OF: Super cute. It’s so simple, but I've never seen it before.

[Voiceover]

OF: Douglon Tse, the island businessman from Episode 15.

[Clip] 

DT: It's Elmo behind a flame wall. So it looks like Elmo from hell. Because sometimes people say things in group chats, and I have nothing to say. And this is the only sticker I found that's applicable to anything, whether it's good news or bad news. Because you can't tell if he's in torture, or he's celebrating; if he's excited, or if he's upset. So the applicability is very high. Which means that I use it a lot.

OF: Well, I do have this, and I haven't used it enough because of the ambiguity. I'm like “Oh, when do I actually use it?” But I should just use it at all times.

[Voiceover]

OF: Casey Hall, the fashion journalist from Episode 22.

[Clip] 

CH: It is a sticker of Elon Musk on stage in Shanghai doing a really awkward dad dance, looking like a bit of a tool. The reason that I like this sticker so much is that I use it in so many different contexts. 

OF: Oh.

CH: I mean, I use it in celebration, like “Yay". I also use it as like “Well, that was weird”. I also use it when I want to say that something's failed. It's the one sticker that can mean so many things.

OF: Oh, you're right. It's like a blank canvas upon which you can put whatever emotion you're feeling.

CH: Exactly. And you might not realise it at first glance, but you can use it in 100 different scenarios.

OF: Yes, I see that. Amazing.

[Voiceover]

OF: Jiyoung, the transgender teacher from Episode 30.

[Clip] 

J: I mean, I have a lot. But at the moment, my favourite one is this little pig that says ‘amazing’ with a rainbow behind it. Because it's still quite queer, but it's vague enough that my co-workers will not be able to tell that it's queer.

OF: Yes.

J: So I like that I can use it in versatile circumstances.

[Voiceover]

OF: Noxolo Bhengu, the African community organiser from Episode 14.

[Clip] 

OF: What is your favourite WeChat sticker?

NB: That is my life most of the time. I'm like “What do I do? This is just too much”.

OF: That’s a good one.

[Voiceover]

OF: Zhang Yuan, the performance art exhibitor from Episode 07.

[Clip]

ZY: Let me send you.

OF: OK, here It is. Oh, OK. Now hang on, let me see, it says ‘大脑一片空白 [dànǎo yīpiàn kòngbái]’. 

ZY: Yes.

OF: OK, phew, I could read it. What does that mean?

ZY: That means “nothing in my head”.

OF: Oh, I like it. So if somebody asks you a question, you don't want to or you can't answer, you just send that.

ZY: Yeah, yeah. It's like “I cannot think of anything”.

[Voiceover]

OF: Katherine Wong, the Peruvian healer from Episode 04.

[Clip]

KW: They look like ballerinas. From the 70s. Yeah, I love this sticker because it describes the feeling of excitement and happiness that I have sometimes.

OF: I'm actually drawn most to the one right at the back. And she is concentrating very, very carefully.

KW: I didn't see her.

[Voiceover]

OF: Jo McFarland, the product sourcing leader from Episode 18.

[Clip] 

JM: Oh my goodness, how do we describe this? They're like The Golden Girls. And they're kind of like shimming their chests. Is that the best way to say it, Oscar?

OF: Yes. 

JM: And that, to me, is a fun sticker. Because I have a lot of fun in Shanghai, and I've got a lot of girlfriends that make me smile, and all the great people that I've met while I'm here.

[Voiceover]

OF: Vladimir Djurovic, the brand naming expert from Episode 13.

[Clip] 

VD: I never use stickers. But I use, a lot, the emoticons. And my favourite one is the determined one with the bandana. I hope you will give me a pass.

OF: Well, this is a particular WeChat emoticon. There isn't something which is in the usual emoji which comes close to this one, right?

VD: It's true. I never realised that.

OF: Yeah. That's why it passes the test. You can still use that. 

VD: Thank you. 

OF: That’s just an exception.

[Voiceover]

OF: Salome Chen, the investor and developer from Episode 24.

[Clip] 

SC: I like the one with sunglasses. Because I enjoy mocking people slightly. 

OF: Oh.

SC: Yeah.

OF: So this is you saying “Cool”. But really, you're saying “Hmm”.

SC: Huhuhuh. 

[Voiceover]

OF: Louise Roy, the childbirth and lactation specialist from Episode 06.

[Clip] 

LR: My favourite WeChat sticker is actually one that says ‘Google it, you lazy ****’. 

OF: Yes, you need to do a “Bing it” too.

LR: Yeah, ‘Bing it, you lazy ****’. 

OF: It doesn't have the same ring, does it?

[Voiceover]

OF: Stéphane Wilmet, the head of consumer insights at L'Oreal from Episode 01.

[Clip]

OF: You know, in the West, we have this image of the hamster in the hamster wheel, running and running and running on the wheel, but going nowhere. But here in China, I feel that it's always up, up, up, up. For me, this one sums up what I experience. You’re always going somewhere better, more challenging, at a pace that accelerates. Up or out. There's no going nowhere or no standing still here.

OF: Mmm.

[Voiceover]

OF: Björn Dahlman, the Swedish clown from Episode 17.

[Clip] 

BD: It's a pink dragon hugging a girl, and there’s a story to it. In 2015, I met this Chinese girl on what was then called ‘China Love Cupid’, I think. This was before the Tinder era. She didn't speak English at all, so it was this total cliché of trying to communicate, trying to figure out "Are we dating, or what?” She was talking about marriage on, I think, the fourth date. You know, all the clichés were there. But she looked like that little girl in the sticker, and when I talked to her I felt like a big pink fluffy dragon. So to me, that series of dragon and little girl stickers became our little story. So it's a sticker attached to memories, more than anything else.

OF: Beautiful. Thank you.

BD: Yeah, it was beautiful.

OF: How long did it last in the end?

BD: I don't know if it even started. We're still in touch, though, as friends. It's no drama. Just, I wish I could speak Chinese.

OF: Well, it's chicken and egg, you know. Once you have a Chinese girlfriend, that's when the language comes to you, right?

BD: Yeah, and you know that's what the Chinese teacher said at the school. “OK, step number one, find girlfriend. Step number two, here's your textbook.”

[Voiceover]

OF: Wendy Saunders, the architect from Episode 12.

[Clip] 

WS: I got this from a friend, and it's just super funny, I think. And it always makes me laugh because it's just these two women, fighting but not really fighting. If you've lived here… 

OF: You’ve seen it. 

WS: You’ve seen this. And it's kind of people like these Shanghainese fishwives.

OF: They’re feisty. 

WS: They’re feisty. They're fighting, but they're not really fighting. They're just kind of annoying each other. And if you look, they're like trying to kick but not really kicking. They know they shouldn't be kicking. So it's kind of really funny, because you can just imagine that being your neighbour right?

OF: Yes.

[Voiceover]

OF: Michael Kinsey, the fire engineer from Episode 25.

[Clip] 

MK: So this sticker is actually formed of three parts - three stickers - that you have to sort of put together in the right order. And it's of this small, fat, Chinese child belly dancing, almost. So I love this because it's quite happy. It was one of the first ones I've seen which are multi-component stickers. 

OF: Yes. 

MK: And I use it, I guess, when I want to say that I'm happy, or to perhaps exemplify my dancing style.

OF: Well, I would like to see you dance like this. Very good. And it's cheating as well, because it's three, not one. 

MK: True.

OF: Can you actually send one of them? It must be a bit weird.

MK: I’ve sent them in the wrong order once, and it was like “Oh, recall, recall,” you know?

[Outro]

OF: I know from last season that for some people the bit about WeChat stickers is your favourite aspect of the entire show, and for some it’s the least. If you’ve made it this far through today’s episode, I’m hoping that you fall into the first category, so thank you very much! Please consider this my Chinese New Year gift to you, and for everyone who is listening to this on their Spring holidays, I hope you’re taking some time to relax and look back on what has been another challenging year. 

Mosaic of China is me, Oscar Fuchs, with artwork by Denny Newell. I’ll see you again in the year of the Tiger.

[Clips]

SW: Thank you very much.

JB: Thank you, it’s been a pleasure.

CC: My pleasure.

KW: Thank you so much.

C: Oh hey, thanks.

LR: Thank you very much.

ZY: Thank you.

JZ: Thank you.

SH: It’s been a pleasure.

DJ: Thank you.

AS: Thank you.

WS: Thank you.

VD: Thanks.

NB: Thank you.

DT: Thank you.

CC: Thank you.

BD: Hehe, thank you.

JM: Thank you very much.

SH: My pleasure, thanks.

MQ: Thank you.

AJ: Thanks a lot.

CH: Thank you.

BO: Thank you very much.

SC: Thank you.

MK: Thank you.

CM: Thank you.

VF: Thank you so much.

ZH: Thank you for having me.

MK: It was my pleasure.

J: Thank you so much.

See here for a full list of transcripts