In the video, Ashton asks his sister in not-so-fluent Chinese, “Is the Great Wall beautiful?”, to which she replies, “It's beautiful.”
He continued: “City or no city? Ah,” to which she replied: “No city, ah.”
“It's not a city in nature, is it?” he continues, to which she concludes: “Definitely not a city!”
The video also shows the pair holding cups of Chinese milk tea and taking a sip at the same time after their bizarre conversation.
The turn of the conversation and its odd tone have amused many online.
“His Chinese doesn't seem to have been learned the traditional way,” joked one online observer.
“Foreigners are amazing. They went from learning Chinese to making Chinese memes,” a second added.
Ashton continued to make videos using the “City or No City” format, which featured family trips around China.
Each segment begins with the person calling a family member and responding with a humorous “Huh?”, followed by Ashton asking whether the activity is urban or not, and finally ending with them having a drink together.
The phrase “urban or not” asks if a place is trendy or has a big city feel.
Walking along the Bund in Shanghai is “urban,” but sitting in the mountains and drinking tea is not.
These videos have become hugely popular, with some receiving over 1 million likes, and Ashton now boasts 540,000 followers on Douyin.
He moved to Shanghai in 2017 after earning a BA in Asian Studies specializing in China from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the US.
He has worked as a food tour guide, English teacher and translator, and graduated from Donghua University, Shanghai in 2021 with a Master's degree in Tourism Management.
A year earlier, he had started an arts and culture consulting firm, running bilingual workshops and promoting art and drag events.
Ashton began posting Chinese-language videos on Douyin in early 2021 and began attracting an early following with his sense of humor.
Last year, he made a video teaching his American nephew Mandarin, and humorously tagged the pair “Thai accent” to poke fun at their accents, much to the delight of his online viewers.
The inexplicably catchy “Urban or Not” meme quickly gained popularity in a variety of areas including travel, fashion styling, and everyday life.
When planning a trip, asking whether a city is a city or not is asking whether it is a modern, cosmopolitan place.
To ask whether an outfit is “urban or not” is to question its stylishness.
When you praise a restaurant for its great décor and delicious food as “so city,” you are complimenting its ambience and style.
This phrase is also used as a homophone in Chinese for “so city” – to be excited or not to be excited. For example, saying “so city” while riding your bike on a rainy day conveys a feeling of excitement.
Many celebrities have also joined the trend.
During a concert in Chengdu, in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, Richie Ren asked fans, “Is Chengdu a city or not?” to which the fans enthusiastically replied, “Yes, it is a city!”
Hong Kong actress Ada Choi also posed the question, “To City or Not to City?” in her travel blog.
Taiwanese actress Yvonne Hsieh-Yi-Lin also posted a video of herself eating pineapple cake in an airplane cabin, joking that it was very “urban”.
