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QINGDAO TODAY
在线翻译:
szdaily -> Speak Shenzhen -> 
‘Fake smile boy’ attends Tencent conference
    2018-11-15  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

To the casual observer, the attendance by an 8-year-old American boy at a yearly conference for one of China’s biggest Internet companies recently might have been an unlikely sight.

That child was viral Internet star Gavin Thomas, known in China as “fake smile boy.”

Images of him smirking at the camera — first as a toddler, then as a youngster — looking confused or showing his trademark uncomfortable smile have floated around the internet for years, becoming a staple on social media like Twitter and Reddit.

Gavin’s success was helped in no small part by his uncle, the Internet celebrity Nick Mastodon, who first started posting funny videos of the child at the age of 2 on the video platform Vine.

But after Chinese social media users started making their own memes from Gavin’s photos posted on Instagram a few years ago, his popularity exploded.

A gif of Gavin’s face, smiling awkwardly, might be used as many as 10 million times a day across China’s various social media platforms, Ann Ding, founder and CEO of Dongtu.com, a major distributor of online gifs, told CNN.

She estimated that all of the total number of Gavin-related gifs used across platforms in China has easily exceeded 1 billion.

Gavin’s first Weibo account was set up in July, and now boasts more than 1.8 million followers who eagerly comment on updates from his daily life such as photos and live streams.

His debut on Weibo was widely reported by Chinese media, and his first trip to China in August made headlines across the country. He made the journey to China from his native Minnesota in August to meet fans and tour some of the country’s major attractions. “He absolutely loved the pandas in Chengdu,” his manager Byron Ashley said, who promised that Gavin would be “back soon.”

Tencent, who invited Gavin to its annual conference recently, even launched a sticker pack of Gavin’s facial expressions on WeChat, China’s most widely used messaging app. Gavin can also be seen on a variety of mugs, posters and clothing sold on Chinese e-commerce sites.

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【病毒式传播】bìngdúshì chuánbō viral of or relating to the rapid propagation of information, ideas, or trends by means of social networks

【文化基因】wénhuà jīyīn meme a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes

最近,一名8岁的美国男孩出席了中国一家互联网巨头公司的年度会议。这对普通观众来说,也许有点不可思议。

这名男孩就是网络红人加文·托马斯,中国人称他为“假笑男孩”。

从学步阶段开始,一直到现在,加文在镜头前傻笑的照片已经在互联网上传播了好几年,成为推特和红迪网站等社交媒体上的重要内容。照片中的他或者一脸困惑、抑或是摆出标志性尴尬笑容。

加文的成功在很大程度上得益于他的叔叔——网络红人尼克·马斯托东。加文的叔叔最早在视频平台Vine上发布加文的有趣视频,当时加文只有两岁。

自从中国社交媒体用户几年前开始用加文在Instagram上发布的照片制作“表情包”以来,他的人气开始大幅飙升。

动图宇宙(制作gif的公司)创始人兼首席执行官丁焱告诉美国有线电视新闻网的记者说,加文“尬笑”的动图表情包在中国各大社交媒体平台每天使用多达1000万次。

据她估算,各大平台关于加文的动图总数加起来超过10亿。

加文在今年7月开通了微博账户。如今,他的微博粉丝已经超过180万,粉丝们热情地评论着有关加文日常生活的更

新,包括照片和直播等。

中国媒体报道了加文在微博的第一次亮相。今年8月,他的第一次中国行也成为头条新闻。

加文2018年8月第一次从家乡美国明尼苏达州来到了中国。他与粉丝会面,并游览了中国的一些主要景点。

经纪人阿什利说:“加文尤其喜欢成都的大熊猫。”阿什利承诺,加文“很快就会回来(中国)”。

最近,腾讯公司邀请加文来参加公司年会,还在微信上发布了用加文的面部表情制作的微信表情包。

加文不但被做成“表情包”,还出现在中国电商网站销售的各种马克杯、海报和衣服上。 (Chinadaily.com.cn)

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