Gavin Thomas is a twelve-year-old boy. Millions of people across the world have fallen in love with this young online star. If you’ve never heard of Gavin, then you’re not one of those people who loves him. Gavin has achieved great success overseas, in China, not in his native country of the United States. Gavin has amassed a startling 1.8 million followers since starting a profile on the Chinese social media site Weibo. This site is comparable to Twitter. His fame and this number both continue to rise. Gavin, in contrast, only has 450,000 followers on Twitter.
Gavin’s awkward facial expression, which has become a tremendously popular, viral awkward face meme, is how he became famous.
10 Million People Shared The Awkward Face Meme
Gavin originally gained notoriety in the United States. Short videos of him playing with his uncle Nick Mastodon during that time rapidly went viral online. However, Gavin’s reputation didn’t really take off until his films naturally migrated to Chinese cyberspace. One in particular, in which he responded nervously to having a gecko placed on his head, smiled in response.
In China, 10 million times each day, people share the awkwardly smiling face meme. According to Ann Ding, the awkward face meme spread through a variety of social media sites. Ann Ding is the creator and CEO of Dongtu.com, a large online gif distributor. Gavin appears to be more well-liked in China than in the US, according to Ding. She would be aware that her company has partnerships with important social media sites in China. These have ties to Alibaba and Tencent.
According to her calculation, China has easily used more than 1 billion Gavin-related gifs across all media. Chinese state media extensively covered his Weibo debut. Additionally, his first visit to China in August generated national news.
Gavin, The Boy With The Phony Smile
Chinese people are unable to pronounce his name. However, his awkward face memes and gifs have gone viral on social media. It mostly circulates on WeChat, which has 1 billion users and is the most popular messaging platform in the nation. Gavin is famous as “the phony smile guy” in China. That was because of his awkward but kind smile, which captured the attention of millions of Chinese internet users. Media professional Cai Qianyi, 39, claimed to share Gavin gifs online frequently.
Cai continued by saying that I first got to know him through the WeChat gifs that other users gave me. The gifs are just what I needed to convey myself, thus I saved them for further usage. Gavin’s trademark smile has become popular among Chinese people, particularly millennials. A gif of this smile is used to convey forced optimism in awkward circumstances.
If someone says something unpleasant and you don’t want to confront them, the awkward face meme might indicate your discomfort. However, it provides an escape route. Leo Li, a senior at a university in Beijing who is 21 years old, claims that. According to Li, Gavin’s forced but cordial smile serves as a helpful “social lubricant.”
According to Ding, the distributor of internet gifs, Gavin’s smile has real emotion. It resonates with Chinese people who seek a way to transmit a feeling of polite hesitancy. Ding continued, “People utilize it as a type of self-mockery.”
The Gavin-themed Phone Covers
It has happened before for American memes to briefly become well-known in China. However, unlike those viral predecessors, Gavin’s team has chosen to capitalize on his success abroad. Gavin made a sponsored trip to Beijing soon after starting his Weibo account to see his followers in person. This led to the creation of more memes featuring Gavin posing in front of famous Chinese monuments while wearing traditional Chinese attire. This led to the creation of more memes featuring Gavin posing in front of famous Chinese monuments. In those pictures, he was wearing traditional Chinese attire. Gavin’s store on Taobao quietly opened and is now selling goods. This includes things like phone cases with his beaming visage on the back. Taobao is a very popular Chinese online shopping website. He struck a partnership with Tencent, the largest internet company in China, during his second visit there. In this contract, he was appearing on Yoo, the company’s new short video app.
China is a really significant and unique market for us. We felt compelled to engage and spend time with Gavin’s fans after learning about his fan following in China. We’re pleased to discuss a few of the projects we have in the works. Byron Austen Ashley gave these remarks. Byron was Thomas’ agent located in Los Angeles.
Final Verdict
According to experts, China’s tradition of politeness is the source of Chinese people’s enthusiasm for animated pictures in the digital discussion. Chinese folks are generally more tactful and mindful of others’ sentiments. However, since online communication is essentially simple, people frequently employ awkward face memes to lighten the mood. Beijing Normal University Assistant Professor of Journalism and Communications Liu Qian made this statement. Some individuals worry about Gavin’s future earning potential because he is growing up so quickly. They believed that his odd facial expressions were ineffective on their own. Ashley stated that his goal is to become a YouTuber, and it appears he is on the right track.
