Lesbian Billionaires Hoax
| Meme | |
|---|---|
| Synonyms: | Lesbian Korean Billionaires, Lesbian Chinese Billionaires |
| Date Started: | 2017 |
| Related: | Stan LOONA |
| See Also: | LOONA, WJSN, Orbit |
 The thumbnail for a popular YouTube video about the incident titled The 'Korean Billionaire Couple' Twitter Hoax by JoeRegrets | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Lesbian (Korean/or Chinese) Billionaires refers to a viral hoax that originated from K-Pop Stan Twitter. It is a copypasta that announces the marriage of two female Asian billionaires, declaring them the richest couple alive. It is, in fact, a hoax and typically involves different K-Pop girl group members or ships in an effort to promote the group or as a meme. It has gone viral twice, once in 2017, from a tweet about WJSN, and again in 2019, about LOONA.
It is a popular trend on Stan Twitter to promote your 'faves' and trick the 'locals' (outsiders to the fandom) into stanning or streaming. This can be done through guerrilla tactics or viral misinformation. The intention may be to increase the view count of a music video, or simply to expand the fanbase. "Lesbian Korean Billionaires", (or alternatively Chinese) refers to just one of these attempts, but it is notable for going viral twice, and reaching BuzzFeed, HuffPost and other news sites. It has so forth become a long-running meme amongst fans for Korean girl groups.
2017 WJSN Tweet
Original Tweet
In 2017, a fan named Abby (@merrymeiqi) made the following tweet:
[BREAKING] Lesbian Chinese Billionaires, Meng Mei Qi and Wu Xuan Yi, marry. Making them the richest couple alive. [photo][1]
It included a photo of K-Pop idols Mei Qi and Xuan Yi from the girl group WSJN (also known as Cosmic Girls). It was taken at the Beijing International Film Festival and uploaded to Weibo.
Abby's tweet went viral gaining over 40k likes and 20k retweets, including a retweet from Disney Channel star Debby Ryan. Abby shipped the two idols and posted it to amuse the group's fans (known by the fandom name ujungs[2]) and didn't expect it to go viral.
From an interview with Buzzfeed:
"I thought they looked like they were at a wedding with the dresses they were wearing, and the dresses sure looked expensive," Fry said. She said that she thought people would fact-check first, but added that it "just shows the power of what we want to happen."[3]
Response from 'Locals'
Some comments and reactions from 'locals' (a fan-term for outsiders to K-Pop fandom):[3]
Things China did: THAT
Donald Trump's head will explode if he finds out
EXCUSE ME, I NEED A BOOK ABOUT THIS IMMEDIATELY
guys that lesbian billionaires tweet is fake those girls are members of the kpop group cosmic girls
The lesbian Chinese billionaire thing is apparently a joke?! Disappoint
In response to some of these fans, K-Pop fans would respond with links to WJSN music videos, often "I wish".
Response from K-Pop Fans
Some comments from K-Pop fans (some are ujungs, others are multistans).[3]
an important day in wjsn history meiqi and xuanyi scammed the internet
wjsn: meiqi and xuanyi are chinese lesbian billionaires
chengxiao: i think we ALL are chinese lesbian billionaires
Guys there's actually no source because you didn't search for it in chinese
good night i love the richest couple alive
Billionaries Meng Mei Qi and Wu Xuan Yi would want you to BUY Cosmic Girls album. Do so if you support their marriage.
the chinese lesbians billionaire keeps getting rts i don't even stan wjsn but their fans are doing the most and succeeding 👏👏👏
That wjsn lesbian billionaires fake news tweet saved 2017, this is hilarious af
Some added to the narrative:
mei qi murdered her husband, married a girl, and became the richest gay couple alive she really did that
*clears throat* so the lesbian chinese billionaires attended school together ....... interesting
One tweet gaining over 10k likes included:
The biopic stars Emma Stone and Scarlett Johansson[4]
2019 LOONA Tweet
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Original Tweet
A variation of the tweet went viral in 2019. A Twitter stan known as Rine made a tweet declaring Ha Soo Young and Kim Ji Woo (also known as Chuu and Yves, or the ship Chuuves). They tweeted it for ‘fun and promo’, didn’t expect it to go viral believing it was an obvious joke.[5]
[BREAKING] Lesbian Korean Billionaires, Ha Soo Young and Kim Ji Woo, marry. With a combined net worth of $170 BILLION, this makes them the richest couple alive.[6]
It went more viral than the previous tweet with over 100k likes.
Rine is an Orbit. This is the fandom name for fans of the twelve-member girl group LOONA. Prior to this meme, the fanbase was already infamous for it's memes and tactics to promote the group. Most notably, spamming random tweets with the words "Stan LOONA", often with music clips or once popularized fancams.
BuzzFeed interviewed Rine on the tweet:[5]
On people falling for the tweet, Rine said: "Well, let's say that I feel sappy about it? Probably because a lot of people recognized the girls and finally listened to Loona, which is a great thing because that's what all fans want, right?"
The responses of the locals actually made me laugh since they were all being cute and congratulating them.
I wasn't really expecting that my tweet will reach the local Twitter, since I'm an orbit and all I tweet about is Loona. And I personally think that they should search who these girls are, since I stated their names before congratulating them. I mean, this is just Twitter, and most of Stan Twitter will literally do everything and anything for their faves to be promoted. The other responses to my tweet were either full of hatred or just people being surprised. I didn't even expect that my tweet will blow just like that, because like I said — I did it just for fun and for Loona of course.
Response from Locals
Many people were fooled by the tweet:
Crazy Jeff Bezos is 69 billion away from catching up. One person WOW. Hats off to the ladies tho[5]
goals[5]
My personal debt is 0.0002% of their net worth and yet it’s 100% crippling[5]
MY FRIEND THOUGHT THAT THE TWEET ABOUT CHUU AND YVES BEING LESBIAN BILLIONAIRES WAS REAL IM CRYING[8]
I thought this was real. What a bummer.[9]
Some were confused or realised the lie:
What the holy hell are all these comments about. What is a Stan Loona?[10]
This is neat. But I'm going to go out on a limb and say that there might be one lie in this headline.[11]
Many locals became fans of LOONA, due to the tweet:
I GOT INTO LOONA BC OF UR TWEET SO THANK U. i've heard of them before thanks to twitter but never listened and now 7 hours later i'm obsessed asdfghjkl bless u[12]
coming from a tweet about lesbian korean billionnaire, wtf this is so good[13]
Some celebrities were even fooled. The tweet was liked by Kehlani, and it was shared as a screenshot to Victoria Monet's Instagram story.[5]
Legacy
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Since the tweets were first made, it has become a long-running joke in both fandoms. Fans from other K-Pop fandoms have attempted to replicate the tweet, aiming to increase the popularity for their respective groups, for example , Kep1er, Dreamcatcher, CLC, TWICE, aespa, though none of these have gained as much popularity to the extent of the original ones from WJSN and LOONA.
Further Links
Videos
- The 'Korean Billionaire Couple' Twitter Hoax by Joe Regrets (2022)
Articles
- The Story About A Chinese Lesbian Billionaire Couple Is Very, Very Fake. Buzzfeed (2017)
- Where Are They Now? The Viral Chinese Lesbian Billionaires That Fooled The Internet. Koreaboo (2023)
- Sorry, But Two Korean Lesbian Billionaires Didn’t Get Married And Become The Richest Couple Alive. Buzzfeed. (2019)
- Unfortunately, Korean Lesbians Did Not Just Become the Richest Couple on Earth. The Cut (2019)
- K-Pop Idols Go Viral After Being Called ‘Korean Lesbian Billionaire’ Couple Worth $170 Billion. NextShark (2019)
References
- ^ Tweet by merrymeiqi (User is now suspended) Archived version from 2018
- ^ Tweet by WJSN_Cosmic, January 11, 2017 (Accessed 24 May 2024)
- ^ a b c Cho, K. Dahir, I. The Story About A Chinese Lesbian Billionaire Couple Is Very, Very Fake. April 29, 2017 (Accessed 29 May, 2024)
- ^ Tweet by JarettSays. April 27, 2017. (Accessed 29 May 2024)
- ^ a b c d e f Dahir, I. Sorry, But Two Korean Lesbian Billionaires Didn’t Get Married And Become The Richest Couple Alive BuzzFeed.News, February 22, 2019 (Accessed 24 May 2024)
- ^ Tweet by rinetheworld, February 2, 2024 (Accessed 24 May 2024)
- ^ Tweet by @ophiuchus_1, February 23, 2019 (Accessed 24 May 2024)
- ^ Tweet by winkchamp, February 24, 2019 (Accessed 24 May 2024
- ^ Tweet by @__solothuggin, February 26, 2019 (Accessed 24 May 2024)
- ^ Tweet by sbvegas. February 24, 2019 (Accessed 29 May 2024)
- ^ Tweet by crearepluris February 25, 2019
- ^ Tweet by rinetheworld. February 24, 2019. (Accessed 29 May, 2024)
- ^ Tweet by LipSoulnator, screenshot of a YouTube comment by jainy shawn, posted in 2019