Arrowroot (Chilk)

Origin

The "chik" meme comes from a photo of a wildlife information sign reading "저는 칡입니다" — "I am kudzu." The sign plainly describes the leopard cat (삵, sak), a small wild feline, yet the one field that matters most, the name, says 칡 (chik), a climbing legume vine. Sak and chik are not merely different species; they belong to different biological kingdoms, and that gap is the joke.

The image was circulating online no later than 2017. The environmental outlet Ecomedia covered the sign on December 12, 2017 under the headline "Endangered leopard cat disguised as a kudzu vine." Treating it as a genuine labeling error, the article went on to explain that the leopard cat runs 50–58cm in body length with a 23–44cm tail, weighs 3–5kg, carries black spots and four vertical black stripes running from the forehead to the nape, and is designated a Class II endangered wild species in Korea. In other words, the meme had spread far enough beyond community boards to be reported as fact by the press.

The forgery question

The prevailing view now is that the word 칡 in that photo was edited in. The Namuwiki entry "저는 칡입니다" records that the original sign stood on Bukhansan and that photos taken from other angles show it correctly reading 삵. The evidence offered is that only the lettering sits at a mismatched perspective, and that traces remain where a search-box graphic originally occupying that spot was erased. The same verification has resurfaced repeatedly on community sites such as Clien, Inven and FMKorea through the 2020s.

On top of that, some argue the animal in the picture is not a leopard cat at all. Based on its size and the tufts at the ear tips, it has been identified as a lynx — which would leave a single photograph carrying two layers of error at once: the wrong name written down, and the wrong animal underneath it. If anything, the dispute over authenticity extended the meme's life.

How it is used

• Commenting "it's a chik" under any photo or video of a leopard cat. On Korean wildlife videos this has hardened into near-boilerplate.
• The inversion: calling actual kudzu vine a "sak."
• Borrowing the "I am ___" sign format to point out an obvious typo or mislabeling.
• Citing it as the standard example of believing something seen online that later turns out to be doctored.

Sources

• Ecomedia, "Endangered leopard cat disguised as a kudzu vine" (December 12, 2017, reporter Kim Han-gyeol) — early press coverage of the sign photo, plus leopard cat biology
• Namuwiki, "저는 칡입니다" — the Bukhansan sign, the case for editing (mismatched perspective, erased search box), and the lynx identification
• Clien, "The truth about chik and sak" — community verification thread comparing source images