About
Gwiyomi or Kwiyomi (귀요미, pronounced as Kiyomi) is a video craze of various hand gestures in sync with the original song of Korean indie pop singer Hari. Netizens remake Gwiyomi videos to show off their cuteness.
Origin
The original single, The Gwiyomi Song, was released on February 18, 2013. The title of the song, “Gwiyomi” actually means “cute little ear”, but it is always translated simply as “cute”.
On the 24th episode of the Korean MTV show “MTV Diary BTOB”, Korean star Ilhoon Jung first invented hand gestures for the song’s chorus part and after the show was aired, many other Korean artists performed the song on different occassions in order to show off their cuteness.
Spread
The meme circulated in Korea through the mass media, and the original singer, Hari, also made a Gwiyomi video of herself. The trend are also spread to the neighboring regions such as Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Phillippines, Thailand and Indonesia. With more performances of the Korean stars in foreign television shows, the meme spread even more vigorously. Gwiyomi videos are constantly posted on Facebook and Youtube, some even made variations on the moves.