"Born in 712, died in 770 and busy in 2012." This tongue-in-cheek sentence describes Du Fu, the prominent Tang Dynasty (618-907) poet who is still a household name today.

Parodies featuring Du Fu have been swirling around China's cyber world in recent weeks. Chinese netizens have gone on a rampage photoshopping Du Fu in the "Du Fu is busy" meme. The fashionable, sometimes vulgar images of Du Fu as a motorcyclist, an athlete and even a superhero in a comic have been forwarded thousands of times on Weibo, China's microblogging service.

This Du Fu revival may be due to the fact that this year marks the 1300th anniversary of the poet's birth year. However, hardly anyone could have imagined that the Du Fu meme would be so popular. Similar trends have been popping up featuring Li Bai and Li Shangyin, both among China's leading ancient poets as well. The two, like Du Fu, are being shot into Web stardom hundreds of years after their deaths. 

While most netizens think of this as just good, clean fun, the parody has been criticized by poetry scholars. Some, including the Chengdu Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum, formerly Du Fu's residence, and the Henan Poetry Association, expressed their outrage by saying this phenomenon was disrespectful to these poets and even a slight to Chinese culture.

As someone who was born in the 1980s, talk of such "disrespect," however, reminds me of being in middle school. Using a pen to draw sunglasses or apply some make-up to the portraits in history textbooks was a common prank that most students engaged in, as we were so stressed with our studies and had to amuse ourselves. This remains in my memory as one of the more light-hearted aspects of my school days.

Therefore, I don't think Du Fu parodies are a serious matter. Like a netizen commented, "Even if Du Fu knew about it, he would just mock himself by saying that a public figure deserves it!"

The parody also serves as a reminder of China's classics. People probably wouldn't realize that this year marks the 1300th anniversary of Du Fu's birth if these caricatures weren't ubiquitous on the Internet. Because of the public's participation and interaction, a number of ancient figures and topics have gained wider exposure and have been given a new light.

However, just as this Internet revelry was reaching its peak, many "hidden forces" came out of the woodwork to identify themselves as the "manipulator" of this online doodle, including some famous marketing teams and Weibo's own operation team. They each claim to have masterminded this whole Du Fu meme fever. There have also been reports that the parody was actually a sophisticated online marketing scheme to promote a museum.

If Du Fu is so busy today as a result of a marketing ploy, then I'm afraid the joke's on the original authors of the meme. The commercial drive behind such a phenomenon sours the whole experience for most people. The public may be willing to tolerate netizens making tacky caricatures of great figures, but it's a whole different ballgame when a PR company is instigating it.

It's a pity to admit that we live in an era in which the public forgets some historical figures or events until they're sensationalized on the Internet as part of a commercial campaign. But I wonder: If Du Fu were alive, would he be right in asking for the commercial rights for the use of his image from the PR company that claims to have plotted the stunt?

The author is an editor with China Youth magazine based in Beijing. yinjunguo@126.com