致敬

What does 致敬 mean?

A firefighter walks into a burning building on camera and, within seconds, the video is unreadable: every line scrolling across it says 致敬. That is the word's second life. Away from the internet it is an unremarkable verb, to pay tribute; on Bilibili it became the default bullet comment (弹幕) whenever something genuinely admirable appears, whether rescue workers, veterans, doctors, or an ordinary person staying cheerful through something hard. The effect is a whole screen standing up to applaud at once. What made it catch on is that it means exactly what it says, with no irony and no wink, in a comment culture where almost everything else is a joke.

Where does 致敬 come from?

Bilibili handed 致敬 its Bullet Comment of the Year title for 2025. The platform's own numbers: more than 22 million sends that year, from over 4.5 million users, roughly 80 percent of them born after 2000. The video that drew the most 致敬 showed a creator cleaning a martyrs' cemetery at the request of a veteran.

How to use 致敬

• 看到消防员冲进火场，弹幕全是“致敬”。
  Kàndào xiāofángyuán chōng jìn huǒchǎng, dànmù quán shì “zhìjìng”.
  When the firefighters ran into the blaze, the whole screen filled with 'salute'.
• 他截肢后还坚持跑马拉松，致敬！
  Tā jiézhī hòu hái jiānchí pǎo mǎlāsōng, zhìjìng!
  He still runs marathons after losing a leg. Respect!