An essay tracing the evolution of Shanghai lockdown memes from giddy jests about Shanghai culture to gallows humor and gloomy meditations on the state of society was censored last week after going viral on Weibo. The essay, published on WeChat by two authors ??? and ???? (aka catiger11), was part of a broader creative outpouring of politically tinged works that have taken China by storm in recent weeks. In one example, a national student poetry competition went viral on Weibo after a number of students submitted entries on generally taboo subjects such as , , and . “I’m surprised they…