By Meghna Pandamukherjee
Online classes can be quite tedious, especially when one has to spend endless hours on Zoom and Manaba. These experiences were making the current student lifestyle a topic of laughs and gags and hence, a stock of unparalleled meme potential. So last month, Common Viet, the Vietnamese cultural society of Ritsumeikan APU, announced a one-of-a-kind meme-making competition to make all our lives a little brighter. Memes have been a popular source of entertainment for netizens for a long time, and this competition was able to show us exactly how talented our very own classmates at APU are.
One of our correspondents was able to reach out to Kira, a representative from Common Viet to learn what went on behind the scenes. "Initially, we wanted to run an online event in which participants would share the memory of APU since the Corona outbreak had made all of us unable to enter the campus", wrote Kira when asked about the conception of this event. The circle had considered writing as the medium but then ruled it too dull and unattractive. "We wanted something more picturesque, funnier, easy, and quicker", she explained.
When asked about the large number of entries received through the competition, Kira replied "one word – unexpected". The circle received overwhelming participation from non-Vietnamese students, despite mostly catering to the Vietnamese community throughout its years in business.
Talking of what defines a good meme, Kira pointed towards the relatability of a meme. Common Viet let the viewers decide for themselves what they loved by ranking the winners of this competition against the number of Facebook likes on their memes.
While looking at the creative submissions, it is hard to miss the pattern of the memes. "As far as we can see, almost all memes are related to Zoom classes. Zoom is new to all of us; therefore, there have been many accidents while using the application. I bet we all have experienced at least a few situations expressed on memes" writes Kira, referring to the theme and nature of the memes.
The event has awarded cash prizes amounting to almost 一万円 to its four winners, and their names are as follows:
First prize: Quốc Bảo (179 points )
Second prize: Hiếu Phạm (124 points); Annie Hoang (96 points)
Special award for the highest number of submissions: Mooky
With the scale of its success, let's hope to see more events that allow APU talents to unleash their creative selves, even in these strange times!
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