ETYMOLOGY

The accidental birth of mengmengda reads like a Shakespearean comedy of errors: In 2013, a sleep-deprived anime fan tried to type ‘mengmeng de’ (adorable) on Baidu Tieba, but his trembling fingers hit ‘da’ instead. This typo miraculously captured the stuttering heartbeat of cuteness overload.

Cultural analysts note three key phases:

Early Adoption (2013-2015): Cosplay communities used it to rate ‘moe points’ – e.g., ‘Your Vocaloid cosplay is 99% mengmengda!’Mainstream Breakthrough (2016): When China’s ‘zombie bike’ graveyards (abandoned shared bikes) were ironically called ‘mengmengda bike forests’, the term showed its satirical edgeGlobal Export (2020+): K-pop stars like BLACKPINK’s Lisa began using it in Weibo posts, with netizens teaching international fans to pronounce ‘mōng mōng da’Fun fact: During 2021’s Mars rover landing, the China National Space Administration named a boulder ‘Zhurong’s mengmengda pet’ – proving even interplanetary exploration can be adorable.