Almost a Million HQ Trivia Players Do Not Know The Currency Of China

Admit it: HQ Trivia isn’t fun because you know you could actually win real money. You know you’re not going to get any actual scratch from playing that game. It’s fun because you love rubbing your obscure knowledge in the faces of your friends. The only catch is, sometimes, HQ Trivia will show you exactly what you don’t know, and sometimes, it’s really basic information that you feel like you should know. China makes up the world’s largest economy right? Do you know what China’s official currency is called? If you answered “yen,” then you would be wrong. You and almost a million HQ Trivia players…

Of course, the brunt of the ridicule is going to be directed at millennials. If you fall within this huge group of extant human beings, then I’m sorry, you’re going to be labeled as inherently ignorant. Never mind the fact that nine out of ten boomers you go ask on the street right now would affirm that they have no idea what the “Renminbi” is. Personal indignation aside, I do have to admit that it’s pretty funny.

It is somewhat telling, isn’t it? What does it say about us, or about China, that the most prominent and influential economy in the world utilizes a form of currency that is apparently unknown and unheard of in the United States? 84% of the player-base thought that the Yen was the official currency of China, which I suppose is an indication of our general ignorance. Perhaps players assumed that the Yen was a general Asian currency used in the greater Eastern world? I don’t know. All I know is that this presented HQ Trivia players with an early opportunity to take the lead over almost 800,000 of their peers and opponents.

Almost as amusing as the question itself is Bloomberg’s commentary on the answer. “In the parlance of HQ Trivia,” their report reads, “it’s a ‘savage question.’ (Savage is millennial lingo for harsh or vicious.) But it appears to have gone beyond the usual degree of toughness for the nearly six-month-old game.” Admittedly, I’m not a regular Bloomberg reader, so I can’t say for sure whether they were attempting to emulate the tone of an old fogey for the sake of irony, or if Mr. Chappatta was just humoring his audience. Either way the article is worth a read.