Don't Forget the Battle of Yultong

Submission 7,152

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About

Don't Forget the Battle of Yultong, also known as Bro Forgot the Battle of Yultong, refers to a TikTok comment trend and meme about forgetting the Battle of Yultong, a 1951 Korean War battle between Chinese and Filipino troops. The Battle of Yultong comments were spammed on TikTok in early 2024, started by Filipino users when TikToker @titonoelofficial (a mime and "green man" soldier) faced controversy after allegedly body-shaming a plus-sized woman. Users told him, "Don't forget the Battle of Yultong" as a way to say that he was facing a much larger enemy (the woman) similar to the 900 Filipino soldiers who fought roughly 40,000 Chinese troops in the Battle of Yultong.

Origin

The Battle of Yultong was fought in 1951 between 900 Filipino soldiers and 40,000 Chinese and North Korean soldiers during the Korean War.^[1] The significantly smaller Filipino battalion defeated the Chinese and North Koreans.^[1]

Viral content and memes about the Battle of Yultong were posted to websites like TikTok^[2] before the "Don't forget the Battle of Yultong" comment trend in early 2024. Some of the memes on TikTok^[3] claimed that patriotic Filipinos would often namedrop the Battle of Yultong when losing an argument online.

The "Don't forget the Battle of Yultong" comment trend started on March 10th, 2024, when TikToker^[4] @jamiecasino posted a video that accused TikToker @titonoelofficial (a mime and "green man" soldier) of body-shaming her plus-sized friend, gaining over 4.5 million plays and 178,900 likes in nine days (shown below, left).

On March 15th, TikToker^[5] @titonoelofficial then posted an apology video, gaining over 14.1 million plays and 550,600 likes in four days (shown below, right).

In the comment section of @titonoelofficial's TikTok,^[5] one top comment read, "yung umiiyak Kana sa video tapos yung mga comment sayo.. puro battle of yultong lang." Translated to English it reads, "she cried in the video after the incident.. pure battle of yultong" (shown below).

Spread

English speakers then picked up on the trend, posting their own "Battle of Yultong" comments on the original TikTok.^[5] Curiosity spread amongst TikTok users as Filipino creators uploaded videos about the trend, such as TikToker^[6] @zhul14 on March 16th, 2024, whose video received over 1.9 million plays and 47,300 likes in three days (shown below, left).

On March 17th, TikToker^[7] @jerge_belmonteh made fun of the comment trend in a video that received over 179,500 plays and 17,800 likes in two days (shown below, right).

Edits started to surface about the Battle of Yultong in mid-March 2024. For instance, on March 16th, 2024, TikToker^[8] @cyxrubb posted an edit with Jujutsu Kaisen characters and backdrops, receiving over 251,100 plays and 39,500 likes in three days (shown below).

Memes and posts about the trend spread elsewhere on social media during the same timeframe. For instance, on March 18th, 2024, Redditor^[9] z0z0cheese posted a Freedom of Speech by Norman Rockwell meme to /r/2philippines4u, captioned, "the battle of yultong tiktok comments are not funny," receiving over 110 upvotes in a day (shown below).