Top 10 social media events of 2015

Duang

The completely made-up onomatopoeia took Chinese Internet by storm since appearing online on Feb 24, and generated hundreds of thousands of hashtags and conversations.

It turns out that the character was created by Jackie Chan describing the particular effects of Bawang organic shampoo in a commercial back to 2004. "Make your hair go 'duaang' Very black! Very shiny! Very soft!" Chan says in the ad.

Because there was no existing Chinese character for the buzzword, some creative Internet users stacked the characters for "Jackie" and "Chan" to represent duang.

What color is the dress?

In February, when a photo of a dress was posted online, it confounded the world as Internet users went nuts over its color: While some saw it as white and gold, others believed it a blue and black, a few people even saw one interpretation and then switch to the other.

The argument lasted until scientists gave us the answer: Our perception of color depends on interpreting the amount of light in a room or scene. So it's all about the way your brain is programmed to understand light — and whether you're a night or day person.