Mastodawn

kolya Jul 18, 2025

@meoralis shutupandtakemymoney.gif

😂

@meoralis Could you explain what this “peng” thing is about? I’ve been puzzled about it for a while 🤨

@[email protected] Peng is an anonymous graffiti artist from Frankfurt, whose quirky minimalist designs and notes can be found in a few German cities ... I think. He's usually in his hometown Frankfurt (and apparently, his graffitis can be found all over the place if you look closely) and does exhibitions occasionally. I don't know much else. 😅
When I did a photo tour in a few Magdeburg neighbourhoods I'm not very familiar with in May, I noticed these graffitis and took photos just because I found them interesting and so unique. It felt like a scavenger hunt! A few weeks later, I saw someone's post of a Peng graffiti in Frankfurt in a different context, which made me curious, because the design looked familiar. So I tried to look him up (there are not many infos on him though, but a YT video and an interview with a reputable German newspaper), and I realized that I stumbled upon a phenomenom. 😄 He must have visited Magdeburg at some point and left some graffitis in these run-down neighbourhoods, possibly together with another graffiti artist (Kauf).
He's probably a big shot in the graffiti scene, but I wouldn't know. I just post the shots I have and am happy that they are not as random as I thought. 😀

Maybe think of him as German underground Banksy? 😉

@meoralis Interesting, thanks! I wonder if the artist has Filipino heritage… “Peng” is a Filipino nickname for Christopher, although apparently it’s a word with a lot of meanings in different cultures 🧐

@[email protected] Interesting! (But how do you get from "Christopher" to "Peng"? There's only a p and an e that make sense 🤭)
I have no idea, as far as I know, no one even knows his name. 🤔 "peng" is a German interjection we use to describe the sound of a small explosion, like "bang","pop", or "boom". I assume that's what his nickname is based on. But of course it could also be a personal nickname.

@meoralis LOL, we can sometimes stretch our names beyond recognition! Christopher becomes Topher becomes Topeng (because replacing end letters with “ng” is fun, why not) becomes Peng. Don’t ask me why the current Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr is known as Bongbong, that’s just how it is 😂

@[email protected] Bwahaha, ok, I get it. And BongBong certainly takes the cake! 😂 I've heard of Topher from the actor Topher Grace, but didn't connect the dots. A lot of languages do that, I assume. I've always wondered about the wild Russian nicknames which seem so far off. (Mischa? Sascha? Dascha?) 🤭 In German, we mostly play by ze rules. You shorten the first or last name a bit (optional) and slap an -i at the end – and there's your nickname. Works for 80% of all names! 😂 All Christophers and Christians and Christophs are either "Chris" or "Chrissy" in German. If you have a different nickname, there must be a cool story behind it. 😜
(What I also noticed abroad is that people use their nicknames as "real" names, like Tom or Chris. They would sign their names with it, print it on business cards, and so on. No one would ever do that here. Nicknames are private only. Even if you're a "Tom" or "Tommy" around family and friends, you would always give your full name to everyone else. This is different in Britain. I found that very interesting 😀)

@meoralis Yes, the character names in Russian lit sometimes confused me. It took me a while to figure out that sometimes three different names referred to the same person 😂

@[email protected] Haha, sounds about right! 🤣