《碧池千层面》是PewDiePie的一首歌曲的名字。它也是一部用两个词写成的、关于印度与互联网关系的社会史。五年间，皮先生——一个真名并不重要的瑞典人——一直是YouTube最受欢迎频道的所有者兼运营者。2019年初，经过几个月的反复争夺，他被宝莱坞工作室T-Series决定性地超越。
“BITCH LASAGNA” is the name of a song by PewDiePie. It is also a two-word social history of the relationship between India and the internet. For five years Mr Pie, a Swede whose real name is irrelevant, was the owner-operator of YouTube’s most popular channel. In early 2019, after several months of back-and-forth, he was decisively overtaken by T-Series, a Bollywood studio.
在落败前夕，这位瑞典主播发布了一首被其粉丝称为“diss”（即侮辱）的歌曲，而在其他人看来，这首歌近乎偏执。其歌词涉及露天排便、对印度语言的嘲笑，以及一个关于“奶子还是阴道”（别问）的梗。这个标题源自一张脸书Messenger截图：一名印度男子要求一名女性发送不穿衣服的自拍照，遭无视后，向对方抛出了这个大概是自动更正生成的辱骂词。互联网确实会激发出每个人最糟糕的一面。
In the run-up to his defeat the Swedish streamer posted what his fans described as a “diss”, or insult, track and what anyone else would consider to be bordering on bigotry. Its lyrics include references to open defecation, ridicule of Indian languages and a meme about “bobs or vegana” (don’t ask). The title alludes to a Facebook Messenger screenshot of an Indian man requesting unclothed self-portraits from a woman and, on being ignored, hurling the presumably auto-corrected epithet at her. The internet really does bring out the worst in everyone.
皮先生与T-Series的竞争标志着印度互联网普及的转折点。2016年，继承了一家石化公司的实业家穆克什·安巴尼，将“数据是新的石油”这句格言按字面意义付诸行动，推出了Jio——一个价格极低、数据流量慷慨的移动网络。几乎一夜之间，印度被现代移动宽带网络覆盖的人口比例从4%跃升至74%。随后爆发了残酷的价格战。
Mr Pie’s battle with T-Series marked a hinge point in India’s internet adoption. In 2016 Mukesh Ambani, an industrialist who inherited a petrochemical company, took literally the maxim that “data is the new oil” and launched Jio, a mobile network with rock-bottom prices and generous data allowances. Almost overnight the population of India covered by a modern mobile-broadband network jumped from 4% to 74%. A brutal price war followed.
互联网用户数量在短短三年内翻了一番：从Jio推出时的印度人口的六分之一，到T-Series获胜时的三分之一，如今已升至70%。如今有10亿印度人使用互联网，相当于每名美国人对应三名印度网民。
Internet users doubled in just three years from a sixth of India’s people when Jio launched to a third when T-Series triumphed, rising to 70% today. A billion Indians now use the internet, or three for every American.
不满足于让印度人联网，Jio在10月通过印度规模最大的上市之一成为公开上市公司后，还为他们上网后提供了一些娱乐。其流媒体服务Hotstar拥有超过4.5亿月活跃用户，远远领先于Netflix或亚马逊的Prime Video。但无论是Jio还是其他任何人，都未能打造出一个比西方社交空间更受印度人青睐的本土社交空间。印度人是YouTube、Instagram和Facebook上人数最多的国籍群体，也是X、Reddit和Snapchat上数量可观的少数群体。他们涌入这些平台，对印度在世界上的形象并没有什么好处。
Not satisfied with bringing Indians online, Jio, which in October went public in one of the country’s largest listings, also gives them something to do once they get there. Its streaming service, Hotstar, has more than 450m monthly users, well ahead of Netflix or Amazon’s Prime Video. But neither Jio nor anyone else has managed to build a social space Indians prefer to Western ones. Indians are the largest nationality on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook and a significant minority on X, Reddit and Snapchat. Their influx onto these platforms has not been great for India’s image in the world.
“Bitch Lasagna”虽然品味低俗，却反映了网络上对印度男性的常见刻板印象，即他们似乎永远在社交媒体上向女性求爱。将印度视为一个不卫生地方的观点也同样令人沮丧地普遍存在。而且，印度人最近也落得了狂热民族主义者、脸皮薄且满嘴脏话的名声。正如X平台上的一篇热门帖文所言：“永远不要在冬天入侵俄罗斯。永远不要在Twitter上攻击印度。”其中一些批评被夸大了。
“Bitch Lasagna”, though tasteless, reflects a common stereotype online of Indian men as forever propositioning women on social media. The idea of India as an unsanitary place, too, is depressingly common. And Indians have of late acquired a reputation as fierce nationalists with thin skins and foul mouths. As one viral post on X put it, “Never invade Russia in winter. Never attack India by Twitter.”Some of the criticism is overblown.
粗鲁的男性和吵闹的民族主义者到处都有，但印度网民的庞大基数使他们更加显眼。其中一部分原因也是印度的开放性所致。由于印度人使用相同的平台且经常用英语发文，该国的缺陷比其他国家更容易被看到。
Crude men and noisy nationalists exist everywhere, but the sheer scale of the Indian contingent makes them more noticeable. Some of it is the result of India’s openness. Because Indians use the same platforms and often post in English, the country’s flaws are more visible than those of other countries.
其中一些也可能带有愤世嫉俗的意味。社交媒体算法优先推送能够引发强烈反应的内容。将印度描绘成肮脏且运转失灵的YouTube旅行视频往往能吸引数百万次观看。Instagram最近充斥着用人工智能生成的视频，展示街头小吃摊贩在极其不卫生的条件下烹饪。激怒印度人可能是一种合理的商业策略，“Bitch Lasagna”获得3亿多的浏览量就证明了这一点。
And some of it may well be cynical. Social-media algorithms prioritise content that elicits strong reactions. YouTube travel videos that portray India as filthy and dysfunctional often attract millions of views. Instagram has lately been flooded with AI-generated videos showing street-food vendors cooking in appallingly unhygienic conditions. Ragebaiting Indians can be a sound commercial strategy, as the 300m-plus views on “Bitch Lasagna” demonstrated.
所有这一切都掩盖了印度互联网可能具有的趣味性，甚至是真正的搞笑。网红和YouTube博主制作迎合各种口味的内容。社交媒体模因是青年俚语的通用货币，同时也渗透到了主流之中。今年的“蟑螂”青年抗议活动最初就是从一个网络笑话开始的。印度的流行文化开始更广泛地实现突破，这只是时间问题。其中一些已经实现了。
All of which obscures just how fun and indeed funny India’s internet can be. Influencers and YouTubers make material for all tastes. Social-media memes are the currency of youth slang and infiltrate the mainstream, too. This year’s “cockroach” youth protests started life as an online joke. It is only a matter of time before India’s popular culture starts breaking through more widely. Some of it already has.
一首名为《Naatu Naatu》的泰卢固语歌曲中的一个舞蹈动作在2022年走红，后来还赢得了奥斯卡奖。今年早些时候，单口喜剧演员阿齐姆·巴纳特瓦拉（Azeem Banatwalla）的一个加长笑话在全球引起了共鸣。随着更多的文化实现跨界，印度在网上的形象也将发生改变。
A dance move in a Telugu song called “Naatu Naatu” went viral in 2022 and later won an Oscar. Early this year an extended joke by Azeem Banatwalla, a stand-up comedian, resonated globally. As more culture crosses over, India’s image online will change too.
在此之前，印度的声誉为内容创作提供了素材。巴纳特瓦拉的笑话列举了你在孟买可能触犯的所有交通违章行为，其罚款总额相当于在挪威因超速被罚的一笔钱。另一位喜剧演员索姆纳特·帕迪（Somnath Padhy）有一个常规表演段子，调侃说“世界上有十亿个网站，我觉得印度人在每一个网站上都留下了评论”。Reddit上还有一个专门展示“廉价互联网引发的混乱”的社区。它被称为“Jio是个错误”。
Until then, India’s reputation provides fodder for content. Mr Banatwalla’s gag was a list of all the traffic violations you can commit in Mumbai for the price of a speeding fine in Norway. Somnath Padhy, another comic, has a routine riffing on how “there are one billion websites in the world [and] I think Indians have commented on all of them.”And Reddit has a community dedicated to “the chaos unleashed by cheap internet”. It is called “Jio was a mistake”.■