A bald, middle-aged man stands motionless against a blue backdrop and staresinto the camera.

"Shan shen bu (dodge step)," he solemnly recites, before taking a large sidestep in a quick, fluid movement.

Maintaining his indifferent expression, the man repeats the action, stepping back to his original position.

The man in this viral video is Chinese folk dance instructor Zhao Tiechun (transliteration), whose demonstration has captivated China's internet.

While Zhao intended to teach the dance move through the video, reportedly filmed years ago, netizens found amusement in the contrast between his seriousness and the dramatic, almost comical sidestep.

A wave of videos showing people imitating the dodge step soon flooded social media.

Netizens took it one step further, concocting daily and witty scenarios where shan shen bu might come handy in.

In one popular video, a man performs the dodge step just as his wife kicks at him.

She aims another kick, which the man successfully avoids by repeating the sidestep.

Another clip shows a woman casually walking down a hallway but suddenly snapping to attention and doing the shan shen bu when handed a file of documents at work.

The meme has become so popular that a shan shen bu competition was recently organised in Xi An, Shaanxi province.

Held at a local shopping mall, children and youngsters turned up to show off their speed and agility, dodging rows of queue poles arranged in lanes.

The trend also found fame overseas, including in Singapore.

Food chain Old Chang Kee Singapore hopped on its popularity in a social media video featuring employees performing the shan shen bu to dodge work.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Old Chang Kee (@oldchangkeesingapore)

Meanwhile, a TikTok video of South Korean and Japanese boy group Nexz executing the move perfectly racked up over two million views and 550,000 likes to become one of their more popular posts.

[[nid:727179]]

lim.kewei@asiaone.com