竹知了 (Bamboo Cicada)
zhú zhī liǎo
What it means
A cheap bamboo toy's buzzing sound accidentally matched the audience's 'waa' at a Huawei car launch. The resulting meme — and Huawei's legal response — became July 2026's biggest internet drama.
The deeper story
A ¥3 bamboo toy took on a tech giant — and the internet couldn't stop laughing.
What happened
In December 2023, Huawei executive Richard Yu (余承东) announced the AITO M9 at a launch event, calling it "the best SUV under 10 million yuan." The audience responded with a sharp, synchronized "waa" of amazement. The moment became a running joke in tech circles.
In July 2026, a netizen discovered that the "waa" sound from a traditional bamboo toy — the 竹知了 (bamboo cicada), a ¥3 children's toy that buzzes when spun — sounded exactly like the launch event audience. The comparison went viral.
Within days, thousands of parody videos appeared. The hashtag generated over 3,000 new videos per day. Sales of the bamboo toy increased 6× in a week.
The legal backlash
On July 29, Huawei's legal team filed 171 copyright complaints across Douyin, Kuaishou, and Bilibili, citing reputational damage. The move backfired spectacularly:
By August, Richard Yu appeared at a new launch event where the comments were flooded with cicada emojis.
Related slang
How to use it
Mentioning 竹知了 in July-August 2026 was a way to say: "remember when a ¥3 toy defeated a trillion-dollar company?" It's a shorthand for an unexpected David vs. Goliath story.
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