The "Kevin Nguyen starter kit" includes the following: one wristband to the Hard Summer Music Festival, an assortment of JUUL pods, a TikTok logo, and a cup of boba milk tea, according to a popular recent tweet . It wasn't far off in spirit from a tweet from a few weeks earlier: a shot of shirtless men posing at a festival that went viral with the caption " u yell out kevin nguyen and half of them turn around ."

Across Twitter, Kevin Nguyen is the butt of so many jokes. "If ur dating a viet dude ur single to me like wtf is kevin nguyen gonna do?" said one tweet, "take u out to get boba in his lexus while listening to rave music, then talk about his supreme collection and his diamond rank on league of legends?" In a thread that reimagines the Netflix rom-com To All the Boys I've Loved Before, a character named Kevin Nguyen attends Electric Daisy Carnival, where he's identified by his six-pack abs and cocaine habit. It all has the same punchline: Kevin Nguyen is a rich, Asian raver.

But Kevin Nguyen isn't a celebrity or a social media star, or even anyone in particular. Instead, like the basic "Becky" or the bro-ey "Chad," Kevin Nguyen is a stereotype, based on nobody specific but also an amalgamation of many, some of whom might in fact be named Kevin Nguyen. Chad is a common reference, and even Beyoncé has given Becky her due, but Kevin Nguyen remains an in-joke, by and for the Asian meme internet. Circulated via Asian Twitter and Facebook groups like Subtle Asian Traits, the name has become a retort, a punchline, and a jab.

Since it was started just about one year ago, the Facebook group Subtle Asian Traits has become the locus of culturally-specific meme culture for over 1.5 million moderately online young Asians. Known as "SAT," which is clearly part of the joke, the group is where memes cross paths with commentary on diasporic tensions, first- and second-gen feelings, and parental pressures. Jokes and memes—about school and bubble tea and boys named Kevin Nguyen and never wearing one's outside shoes inside—cycle between Twitter and the Facebook SAT-sphere.