Memetic Culture: An Analysis of the Family Relationships Representation in Internet Memes in Russia and China

Authors:
Denissova G.V.Smirnova O.V.Steblovskaya S.B.
Abstract:

The present paper unfolds within the framework of a comparative analysis of a relevant type of media content: Internet memes. The meme agenda has been studied from the perspective of how family relationships are represented in society through their fixation in the media space, which leads to the stable narrative’s formation. Memes can be interpreted as a universal communicative unit that allows to overcome intercultural barriers, primarily due to visual components and universally recognizable codes. At the same time, memes often contain both explicit and implicit references to national cultural codes, which can create difficulties for the perception and adequate understanding by different linguacultural groups. The research methodology is based on the anthropocentric paradigm of scientific humanities knowledge. For the purpose of this research, a monitoring among students of the Faculty of Journalism at Lomonosov Moscow State University in May and June 2025 was conducted. A random selection of memes was conducted manually from personalized social media feeds, including Xiaohongshu, WeChat, VK. The study confirms the status of the meme as a multilingual unit of Internet communication and as a polycode media product that generates meanings/contexts through the simultaneous use of a wide range of codes. The comparative analysis of Russian and Chinese memes with a family theme has revealed a number of trends related to the state of memetic culture. It was found that a meme cannot be unequivocally regarded as a universal communicative unit, since both the verbal and visual elements of a meme in most cases contain explicit and implicit references to the national cultural code. Also, ethnocultural specificity is manifested both in the construction of memes and at the semiotic level and the representation of meme family relationships not only contains ethnocultural references but also reflects the overall level of conflict in society.

Key words:
polycode textmemospherecontent analysisconcept of familyInternet meme
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