When You Get to Heaven but It's Chinese

About

When You Get to Heaven but It's Chinese refers to a viral video from TikTok about going to heaven and discovering that it's Chinese. The original video was posted by TikToker Papist Dalton (@papist_dalton) in 2022. It shows him greenscreened in front of a Chinese heaven background with Chinese music playing. He says, "No, it's fine. I just… I just didn't think it'd be Chinese." In the following years, the video was reposted across social media sites like Twitter / X. It was lauded by internet users who believed it was a top-tier TikTok video skit. Its positive reputation led to memetic references sometimes expressed in memes about Chinese heaven or discovering that something is Chinese to the subject's surprise.

Origin

On November 30th, 2022, TikToker^[1] @papist_dalton posted a video captioned, "When you get to heaven but it's Chinese," showing himself greenscreened in front of a heavenly Chinese background with Chinese music playing. He says, "No, it's fine. I just… I just didn't think it'd be Chinese." Over two years, the video received roughly 549,500 plays and 68,500 likes (shown below).

Spread

The video resurfaced en masse in early 2024, after a tweet shared by X^[2] user @kimchicel on January 11th, reading, "I hope heaven is Chinese. Even if I didn’t expect it to be." Later on January 11th, X^[3] user @andeanfemme quote tweeted them with the original video, gaining over 23,000 likes in 11 months (shown below).

On March 11th, 2024, X^[4] user @ctoafn quote tweeted a post reading, "What video is the reason they shouldn't ban TikTok?" attaching the Chinese Heaven video, amassing over 26,000 likes in nine months (shown below).

On December 21st, X^[5] user @narrenhut quote tweeted a post about Idaho's large Chinese immigrant population in the late 1800s with an exploited and recaptioned version of the original video's thumbnail, reading, "When you get to Idaho but it's Chinese," amassing over 36,000 likes in 10 days (shown below).

On December 29th, 2024, X^[6] user @squirtstain tweeted about the Death of Jimmy Carter, asking, "Do you think Jimmy Carter is making lots of friends right now in Chinese heaven?" The tweet received over 4,700 likes in two days (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References