Bilibili, a leading video platform popular among China’s younger generation, announced on Monday the phrase of the year on its site to be “Po Fang Le”, or “this broke down my defenses” in literal translation.
The trending comment, or what Bilibili calls a “bullet chat”, originates a situation when gamers are attacked and their defenses torn down.
Today this expression is employed by the site’s 267.2 million monthly active users to describe a number of strong feelings, such as something leaving them emotionally vulnerable, deeply touched by a story, or helpless under immense stress.
In previous years, the company released a list of bullet chats by highest frequency of use. These included AWSL, an acronym of the Chinese expression Ah, wo si le (“I’m dead”), and Ye qing hui, or “My youth is making a comeback”.
Bullet chat is a commentary system unique to the Bilibili ecosystem, where viewers leave comments that scroll across on-screen content. This year there were a cumulative 10 billion bullet comments.
Real-time comments from viewers fly across the screen like bullets while a video is playing.
Source/China Daily
