'Po fang le' is Bilibili's bullet comment of the year, aka 'this really got me'
China's leading video platform Bilibili.com announced on Monday that its "bullet comment" of the year is "Po Fang Le, 破防了," which means something has breached my defenses, or this really got me!
The total amount of bullet comments ever sent to Bilibili reached 10 billion in 2021, a truly staggering number.
The phrase originally meant a physical defense has been broken or breached, normally in a game or sporting event. In the Internet context, it can also mean someone has watched something so moving that it broke their psychological defense.
It's most used for emotional content like in early November when China's EDward Gaming won the 2021 League of Legend World Championship in Iceland. Or the touching scenes of an anime, in a movie, or TV series.
Bullet comments are part of a commentary system unique to Bilibili's ecosystem in which viewers' comments fly across content.
The poster for Bilibili's bullet comment of the year "Po fang le."
It was an overwhelming moment for viewers following EDG, or EDward Gaming, when the team won the world championship in November.
The phrase can also be used in animes, movies, and TV series when the plot gets emotional.
Sun Ping, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Social Science, who collaborated with Bilibili on the report, said the phrase "Po fang le" has somehow expressed the younger generation's emotional state and their capacity to emphasize, no matter their cultural or educational background.
The bullet comments in previous years included AWSL, an acronym for the expression Ah, wo si le (I'm dead), used mostly for watching something really cute or funny; and Ye qing hui (My youth is making a comeback).
Ye qing hui (爷青回) can be seen a lot in a new episode of an anime series that has been airing for many years.
Bullets comments have become a vivid cultural symbol in this digital age. They can always express a much-relatable emotion with just a few words.
Most of the site's users would agree that when they switch on the bullet comments, they would feel someone's there to watch the video with them, a sense of belonging, and sometimes the comments would just be pure gold comedy.
However, some users would send spoilers on bullet comments. To counter those comments, Bilibili also has a mechanism to report insulting, spoilers, and meaningless bullet comments.
Today Bilibili has 267.2 million monthly active users with an average age of 22.8 years and 86 percent of all users are under 35 years old, which is about half of China's young generation.
According to a Bilibili report in May, its five most watched types of content were about games, lifestyle, movies and TV series, entertainment, and education.
Sometimes it would just be fun to join others to send a bullet comment.
