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Zombies in China? The new TikTok trend explained and debunked

 (Simon Wijers / Unsplash)
(Simon Wijers / Unsplash)

Zombies aren’t real – or at least that used to be the general consensus of the general public.

Medically, there has been no change to this fabricated diagnosis but that hasn’t stopped the internet from running wild with the idea.

The major caveat is that this new trend is all based on a piece of speculative fiction.

So here’s the real deal on the ‘zombies in China’ trend – you have been warned:

Where is the zombies in China TikTok trend from?

A 2021 piece that took the fantasy horror imagination to the next level by conceptualising a zombie plague and how it might play out in our world may be the source of this trend.

The article ‘This is how a zombie apocalypse is most likely to start in China’ took the trope that often starts in Europe and placed it in the East Asian nation.

Drawing comparisons to communist Russia’s 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the original poster Ruddy Cano postulated that the news would be kept secret at first – quoting Max Brook’s ‘World War Z’ novel to support his argument.

The quote reads: “By refusing to admit the truth of the zombie outbreak to the world, the Communist Chinese government aided its spread due to the misinformation about what was actually happening.”

In 2011 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also created a mock preparedness guide for a “zombie pandemic”.

The wonderfully illustrated comic sets the scene and provides and “all-hazards emergency kit” list for you and your family.

What is the trend about?

By definition, a zombie is an undead creature often “attacking and eating human beings”, who do not have the ability to think, according to the Cambridge dictionary.

Although it is clear that zombies are not real - the medical world has yet to make the ‘undead’ a reality - the Covid-19 outbreak and ensuing pandemic has left many on edge.

With ‘zombies in china’ trending on TikTok and Twitter, kinemortophobic (those with fear of zombies) users are dealing with the worst of it.

Creators are trying to convince people that there really has been an outbreak by sharing footage of so-called ‘zombies’ from films and TV shows – or even self-made trick video clips.

Rest assured, French philosopher Nostradamus’s prediction of a global famine in 2021 was wrong - and he is wrong about this too.