Chinese Slang Encyclopedia

躺平 tǎng píng

💼 Workplace 🛋️ Anti-Hustle Zen

Actively rejecting the rat race and excessive hustle culture by lowering materia...

• Quiet Quitting / Anti-work movement

摸鱼 mō yú

💼 Workplace 🐟 Corporate Rebel

Slacking off sneakily during corporate hours while pretending to work; taking pa...

• Cyber-slacking / Clock-watching / Stealing company time

班味 bān wèi

💼 Workplace 🧟 Corporate Fatigue

The dead, soulless, exhausted corporate aura that settles over your face and clo...

• Corporate zombie energy / Burnout hollow gaze

内卷 nèi juǎn

💼 Workplace 🌪️ Zero-Sum Rat Race

A hyper-competitive, zero-sum rat race where everyone burns out working 3x harde...

• The toxic rat race / Red queen's race

摆烂 bǎi làn

💼 Workplace 🏳️ Active Surrender

Recognizing a situation is completely unsalvageable and deliberately giving up a...

• Letting it rot / Giving zero f*cks / Quiet quitting on steroids

卷王 juǎn wáng

💼 Workplace ⚙️ Overachieving Menace

The hyper-competitive colleague who voluntarily works through holidays, setting ...

• The ultimate try-hard / Corporate gunner

润学 rùn xué

💼 Workplace ✈️ Emigration Lore

The sociological art and practical methodology of emigrating, studying, or livin...

• Digital nomad escape / Golden visa hunting

打工人 dǎ gōng rén

💼 Workplace 💼 Proud Proletariat

A self-deprecating yet resilient term adopted by modern white-collar and blue-co...

• The working-class hero / 9-to-5 grinder

996 jiǔ jiǔ liù

💼 Workplace ⛓️ Overtime Prison

The grueling, notorious tech overtime schedule widely criticized for causing bur...

• Crunch culture / Sweatshop tech schedule

牛马 niú mǎ

💼 Workplace 🐂 Subservient Cog

A raw, biting self-deprecating insult used by overburdened workers to describe f...

• Corporate wage slave / Draft horse

画饼 huà bǐng

💼 Workplace 🥧 Empty Promises

When leadership promises huge future rewards, equity, or promotions to keep you ...

• Selling pipe dreams / Dangling a carrot / Blowing smoke

精神离职 jīng shén lí zhí

💼 Workplace 🧠 Mental Check-Out

Physically remaining at your desk to collect paychecks, but mentally checking ou...

• Quiet Quitting / Mentally clocked out

调休 tiáo xiū

💼 Workplace 🤹 Fake Holidays

The dreaded official holiday calendar system of borrowing weekend days to create...

• Stitched holiday fatigue / The illusion of vacation

薪水小偷 xīn shuǐ xiǎo tōu

💼 Workplace 🕵️ Wage Thief

Someone who masters the art of doing almost nothing during work hours while gett...

• Getting paid to poop / Corporate ghost employee

降本增效 jiàng běn zēng xiào

💼 Workplace ✂️ Corporate Guillotine

The universal corporate euphemism for ruthless budget slashing, layoffs, and can...

• Downsizing / Corporate cost-cutting masquerade

赋能 fù néng

💼 Workplace 📊 Tech Jargon Hell

Pompous, hollow tech jargon thrown around in PowerPoint decks that usually means...

• Synergy / Enablement / Corporate buzzword bingo

电子布洛芬 diàn zǐ bù luò fēn

💼 Workplace 💊 Emotional Painkiller

A specific comforting podcast, cartoon, or sitcom that soothes real-life headach...

• Comfort media / Dopamine band-aid

脆皮打工人 cuì pí dǎ gōng rén

💼 Workplace 🩹 Glass Cannon Worker

A young office worker whose health is so degraded they suffer pulled muscles fro...

• Glass-cannon health status / Physically fragile millennial

显眼包 xiǎn yǎn bāo

💖 Dating & Social 👑 Main Character

Someone who loves stealing the spotlight in an eccentric, hilarious, slightly go...

• Main character energy / Class clown

纯爱战神 chún'ài zhànshén

💖 Dating & Social ⚔️ GigaChad Romance

A staunch defender of wholesome, loyal, monogamous true romance who detests chea...

• GigaChad of true romance / Hopeless romantic warrior

社恐 shè kǒng

💖 Dating & Social 🙈 Socially Anxious

Social anxiety; introverts who dread small talk, phone calls, and bumping into a...

• Social anxiety / Introvert panic

社牛 shè niú

💖 Dating & Social 🦚 Fearless Rizz

The opposite of 社恐: someone with zero social shame who can converse with strange...

• Unhinged extrovert / Extreme rizz / Zero social shame

搭子 dā zi

💖 Dating & Social 🥢 Micro-Friendship

A low-commitment, high-efficiency functional friendship forged for one specific ...

• Activity buddy / Low-maintenance micro-friend

恋爱脑 liàn'ài nǎo

💖 Dating & Social 💔 Hopeless Simp

Someone whose cognitive faculties entirely shut down when in love; prioritizing ...

• Down-bad simp / Blindly lovesick / Delulu in love

上头 shàng tóu

💖 Dating & Social 🌡️ Catching Feelings

Getting instantly, overwhelmingly obsessed with a new crush, show, or hobby; cat...

• Catching major feelings / Dopamine rush obsession

下头 xià tóu

💖 Dating & Social 🧊 The Ultimate ICK

The exact opposite of 上头: when one tiny, cringe, or arrogant thing your date doe...

• Getting the ICK / Instant turn-off

海王 hǎi wáng

💖 Dating & Social 🔱 The Serial Player

A player who casts a wide net across the 'ocean' of dating, juggling dozens of r...

• Serial player / Fuckboy / Rizz-lord with 10 side-pieces

舔狗 tiǎn gǒu

💖 Dating & Social 🐕 Desperate Simp

Someone with zero self-respect who endlessly showers attention, gifts, and compl...

• Desperate simp / Beta orbiter / Bottom-tier flatterer

细狗 xì gǒu

💖 Dating & Social 🦴 Weakling Roast

A teasing, emasculating taunt aimed at scrawny men who lack physical strength, e...

• Skinny boy roast / Scrawny gym meme / 'Do you even lift bro?'

普信男 pǔ xìn nán

💖 Dating & Social 🪞 Delusional Ego

An average, unremarkable man who possesses unearned, delusional self-confidence ...

• Delusionally confident man / Unearned mediocre ego

绿茶 lǜ chá

💖 Dating & Social 🍵 Fake Innocent Snake

Someone (usually female) who acts pure, fragile, and innocent on the surface to ...

• Pick-me girl / Wolf in sheep's clothing / Fake angel

爹味 diē wèi

💖 Dating & Social 👨‍🏫 Patronizing Mansplaining

The patronizing, lecturing demeanor of older men who mansplain basic life philos...

• Mansplaining / Patronizing boomer energy / Dad lecturing

油腻 yóu nì

💖 Dating & Social 🧈 Sleazy & Cringe

Sleazy, unearned swagger, excessive flirting, bloated physical habits, and cring...

• Sleazy cringe / Greasy pickup artist / Uncanny swag

渣男 zhā nán

💖 Dating & Social 🗑️ Toxic Cheater

A scumbag man who deceives women, plays with their emotions, cheats, and evades ...

• Toxic fuckboy / Scumbag heartbreaker

僚机 liáo jī

💖 Dating & Social 🛩️ The Wingman

The trusted friend who helps distract the crowd, hypes you up, and assists you i...

• Wingman / Wingwoman

社杂 shè zá

💖 Dating & Social 🎭 Situational Chameleon

An ambivert who acts completely wild, loud, and extroverted with close friends, ...

• Ambivert with split personalities / Selective extrovert

发疯文学 fā fēng wén xué

🤪 Unhinged & Brainrot 🤯 Crashout Rant

Unleashing chaotic, unhinged, emotionally hysterical rants on customer service o...

• Crashout rage texting / Unhinged meltdown literature

绝绝子 jué jué zi

🤪 Unhinged & Brainrot ✨ Over-the-Top Slay

Hyperbolic praise ('so slay!'), originally from idol survival shows and Xiaohong...

• Periodt! / Absolutely slaying! / So aesthetically pleasing (ironic)

尊嘟假嘟 zūn dū jiǎ dū

🤪 Unhinged & Brainrot 🥺 Baby-Talk Sarcasm

Baby-talk pronunciation of '真的假的' (Really or fake?). Used to feign innocence, pl...

• For real or cap? / No cap? (In baby speech)

退退退 tuì tuì tuì

🤪 Unhinged & Brainrot 🧙 Defensive Hex

A comedic defensive warding gesture used to ward off bad luck, toxic bosses, ann...

• Begone foul demon! / Counter-hex warding

破防 pò fáng

🤪 Unhinged & Brainrot 🛡️ Emotional Armor Pierced

When emotional defenses are completely shattered by an emotionally moving story,...

• Getting triggered / Emotional shield shattered / Broken inside

小丑竟是我自己 xiǎo chǒu jǐng shì wǒ

🤪 Unhinged & Brainrot 🤡 The Clown Facepalm

Mocking someone else's misfortune only to realize you are the real fool, victim,...

• Clown makeup meme / The joke's on me / Putting on the clown wig

泰裤辣 tài kù là

🤪 Unhinged & Brainrot 🎸 Unintentional Comedy

Cringeworthy, overly theatrical, accidental comedic motivation spoken with drama...

• Unintentional cringe swag / Fake motivational cringe

栓Q shuān Q

🤪 Unhinged & Brainrot 🫠 Sarcastic Thanks

A sarcastic, exhausted 'Thank you so much' said when something terrible, frustra...

• Thanks, I hate it / Sarcastic 'Gee, thanks'

芭比Q了 bā bǐ Q le

🤪 Unhinged & Brainrot 🔥 We Are Cooked

We are completely burned, ruined, cooked, or dead. A state of total defeat and f...

• We are so cooked / Game over / Total disaster

蚌埠住了 bèng bù zhù le

🤪 Unhinged & Brainrot 🤐 Can't Hold It In

Unable to keep a straight face; cracking up laughing or bursting into tears unde...

• I can't even / Losing my composure / Cracking up

依托答辩 yī tuō dá biàn

🤪 Unhinged & Brainrot 💩 Literal Hot Garbage

A clean, homophonic way to describe an absolute piece of garbage movie, game, pr...

• A pile of steaming hot dogshit / Absolute trash

电子木鱼 diàn zǐ mù yú

🤪 Unhinged & Brainrot 🪷 Cyber-Karma

Tapping a mobile app to accumulate virtual Buddhist karma to cleanse your soul a...

• Cyber-karma cleansing / Digital penance

疯狂星期四 fēng kuáng xīng qī sì

🤪 Unhinged & Brainrot 🍗 KFC Copypasta

The greatest copypasta tradition in Chinese internet history: a dramatic, tragic...

• The ultimate KFC V-me-50 copypasta

虾仁猪心 xiā rén zhū xīn

🤪 Unhinged & Brainrot 💔 Murder the Mind

To not only defeat someone, but deliberately destroy their inner self-esteem and...

• Murder the mind / Rubbing salt in emotional wounds

我太难了 wǒ tài nán le

🤪 Unhinged & Brainrot 😫 Exhausted Groan

The universal sigh of exhaustion when adult responsibilities, bills, and bad luc...

• I can't catch a break / The struggle is too real

乌鸦坐飞机 wū yā zuò fēi jī

🤪 Unhinged & Brainrot 🦅 Ridiculous Attack

An absurd, loud, theatrical martial arts attack move said with immense unearned ...

• Absurd anime attack / Unhinged kung-fu flex

芜湖起飞 wú hú qǐ fēi

🤪 Unhinged & Brainrot 🚀 Hype Blastoff

A roar of celebratory hype when your squad clutches a victory, your stock double...

• LFG! / We are so up! / Blastoff time!

老六 lǎo liù

🤪 Unhinged & Brainrot 🐀 Campers & Trolls

A sneaky, dishonorable player who camps in pitch-black corners to backstab unsus...

• Rat camper / Bush camper / Sneaky troll

电子榨菜 diàn zǐ zhà cài

🍵 Lifestyle & Shock 📺 Mealtime Companion

Essential comfort video content played during meals; without it, swallowing food...

• Dinner-time YouTube video / Comfort food media

脆皮大学生 cuì pí dà xué shēng

🍵 Lifestyle & Shock 🩹 Fragile Gen-Z Health

Young university students who appear physically energetic but collapse into emer...

• Glass-cannon college kid / Physically fragile youth

City不City city bù city

🍵 Lifestyle & Shock 🏙️ Urban Vibe Check

A catchphrase testing whether a destination, outfit, or lifestyle has internatio...

• Is that giving major city vibes or what? / Cosmopolitan check

特种兵旅游 tè zhǒng bīng lǚ yóu

🍵 Lifestyle & Shock 🪖 Extreme Sightseeing

Aggressive, sleep-deprived weekend travel hitting 8 tourist attractions and 40,0...

• Speedrunning a city / 48-hour ultra tourism

穷鬼套餐 qióng guǐ tào cān

🍵 Lifestyle & Shock 🍔 Budget Fuel

Ultra-cheap fast-food discount combos (e.g. McDonald's 1+1, Ikea hotdogs) that s...

• Dollar menu lifesaver / Poverty meal flex

硬控 yìng kòng

🍵 Lifestyle & Shock ⛓️ Stun-Locked

When a video, face, or absurd situation is so captivating your brain freezes and...

• Stun-locked / Captivated into paralysis / Brain frozen

军大衣 jūn dà yī

🍵 Lifestyle & Shock 🧥 Budget Flex

Purchasing cheap vintage olive-drab padded military trench coats instead of $300...

• Rejecting designer luxury for Soviet-style practical drip

围炉煮茶 wéi lú zhǔ chá

🍵 Lifestyle & Shock 🍵 Aesthetic Tea Vibe

Roasting persimmons, sweet potatoes, and boiling tea over tabletop charcoal stov...

• Cottagecore tea aesthetic / Cozy campfire flex

寺庙经济 sì miào jīng jì

🍵 Lifestyle & Shock 📿 Cynical Piety

Between working hard and working out, Gen Z chooses burning incense at Buddhist ...

• Gen Z praying to Buddha instead of corporate climbing

显摆 xiǎn bai

🍵 Lifestyle & Shock 🦚 Shameless Flex

Shamelessly flexing a new purchase, promotion, or relationship to provoke envy i...

• Flexing unprompted / Stunting / Showing off

逆向消费 nì xiàng xiāo fèi

🍵 Lifestyle & Shock 📉 Anti-Consumerism

Refusing luxury brand markups to buy white-label OEM goods, second-hand items, a...

• De-influencing / Aggressive frugalism / Anti-consumerism

养生朋克 yǎng shēng péng kè

🍵 Lifestyle & Shock 🍻 Cursed Balance

Engaging in destructive lifestyle habits while frantically trying to counteract ...

• Health nihilism / Vodka with green juice / Cursed wellness

精神状态 jīng shén zhuàng tài

🍵 Lifestyle & Shock 🙃 Mental Health Mood

Ironical commentary on whether one has completely lost their grip on sanity unde...

• My mental stability is a joke / 'Are you sane right now?'

治愈系 zhì yù xì

🍵 Lifestyle & Shock 🍃 Soul-Healing

Gentle, wholesome, tranquil content (cat videos, warm anime, rainy scenery) that...

• Soul-cleansing wholesome vibes / Healing media

佛系 fó xì

🍵 Lifestyle & Shock 🧘 Non-Reactive Chill

Taking life as it comes with complete non-reactivity, letting things happen natu...

• Radical non-reactivity / Zen detachment / 'It is what it is'

血脉觉醒 xuè mài jué xǐng

🍵 Lifestyle & Shock 🧬 Cultural DNA Trigger

When young, Westernized Chinese suddenly find themselves loving traditional habi...

• Ancestral instincts unlocking / Becoming your parents

YYDS y.y.d.s.

🎮 Gaming & ACG 🐐 The Supreme GOAT

The highest praise possible for an esports player, athlete, brand, food, or piec...

• The G.O.A.T. / Undisputed God

纯纯的搞子 chún chún de gǎo zi

🎮 Gaming & ACG 🤡 Full-Time Troll

A teammate or friend who exists solely to troll, make catastrophic blunders, and...

• Professional griefer / Dedicated team troll

掉大分 diào dà fēn

🎮 Gaming & ACG 📉 Catastrophic Fall

Suffering a devastating loss in competitive rank; extended to someone whose repu...

• Elo tanking / Massive reputation loss / Deranking

躺赢 tǎng yíng

🎮 Gaming & ACG 🛋️ Carried to Glory

Achieving victory effortlessly because an overpowered teammate did 100% of the h...

• Getting hard-carried / Carried to victory

带飞 dài fēi

🎮 Gaming & ACG 🚀 The Hard Carry

Single-handedly carrying an entire incompetent team or group project across the ...

• Hard carrying the lobby / Carrying the backpack

欧皇 ōu huáng

🎮 Gaming & ACG 🍀 Blessed by RNG

A player blessed with supernatural gacha luck who pulls ultra-rare 5-star charac...

• Blessed by RNGesus / The lucky 1%

氪金 kè jīn

🎮 Gaming & ACG 💳 Pay to Win

Spending real-world money on in-game microtransactions, loot boxes, and virtual ...

• Whaling / Pay-to-win microtransactions

厨力放出 chú lì fàng chū

🎮 Gaming & ACG ❤️ Pure Simp Dedication

Pouring insane amounts of money, time, and fan art into a fictional character pu...

• Stanning a character / Maxing out your waifu

爷青回 yé qīng huí

🎮 Gaming & ACG 👴 Nostalgia Trip

An explosion of joyful nostalgia when a beloved childhood anime, band, game, or ...

• My childhood is back / Instant nostalgia trip

骨灰级 gǔ huī jí

🎮 Gaming & ACG 🎖️ Hardcore Veteran

An OG veteran who has mastered an art, game, or hobby for decades; someone with ...

• Hardcore veteran / Day-one OG / Elder geek

扎心了老铁 zhā xīn le lǎo tiě

🎮 Gaming & ACG 🔪 Pierced to the Core

A painful truth that strikes right at your deepest insecurities and emotional vu...

• That hits way too close to home, bro / Emotional gut punch

666 liù liù liù

🎮 Gaming & ACG 🤙 Impressive Mastery

Praising slick, smooth, God-tier performance or brilliant problem-solving....

• Poggers / Sick play! / Smooth moves

23333 èr sān sān

🎮 Gaming & ACG 🤣 LOLOLOL

Rolling on the floor laughing hysterically; the classic Chinese typed laugh....

• LMAO / ROFL / Hahaha

降维打击 jiàng wéi dǎ jī

🎮 Gaming & ACG 🌌 Dimensional Crush

An overwhelming, unbeatable assault from a superior competitor operating on an e...

• Outclassing from another stratosphere / Alien-level disruption

吃鸡 chī jī

🎮 Gaming & ACG 🍗 Winner Winner Dinner

Securing first place in a Battle Royale survival game (PUBG, Warzone, Apex)....

• Winner Winner Chicken Dinner / Victory Royale

草台班子 cǎo tái bān zi

🌐 Society & Subculture 🎪 Universal Incompetence

The liberating realization that the entire adult world—global companies, governm...

• The world is held together by duct tape / Nobody knows what they're doing

信息茧房 xìn xī jiǎn fáng

🌐 Society & Subculture 🕸️ Echo Chamber Trap

Being trapped in an algorithmic echo chamber where platforms feed you only what ...

• Algorithmic echo chamber / Filter bubble

降智 jiàng zhì

🌐 Society & Subculture 📉 Brainrot Drop

Content, plotlines, or dialogues so utterly idiotic that you can feel your own n...

• Brainrot / Losing IQ points watching this

逆天 nì tiān

🌐 Society & Subculture 🤯 Beyond Bizarre

Behavior, news, or statements so wildly out-of-line, cursed, or unhinged that it...

• Wildly unhinged / Absolutely cursed / Out of pocket

大冤种 dà yuān zhǒng

🌐 Society & Subculture 🤡 The Ultimate Sucker

The unfortunate soul who pays full price, takes the blame for others, or works h...

• The ultimate sucker / The fall guy / The chump

吃瓜 chī guā

🌐 Society & Subculture 🍉 Tea Sipper

Sitting back like a spectator with popcorn, enjoying public drama, celebrity sca...

• Spilling the tea / Grabbing the popcorn / Drama spectator

PUA p.u.a.

🌐 Society & Subculture 🚩 Toxic Manipulation

Psychological gaslighting and systemic manipulation in romance or corporate mana...

• Gaslighting / Psychological abuse / Corporate manipulation

智商税 zhì shāng shuì

🌐 Society & Subculture 💸 Sucker Tax

Wasting hard-earned money on pseudo-scientific products, useless luxury gimmicks...

• Idiot tax / Snake oil scam

韭菜 jiǔ cài

🌐 Society & Subculture 🌾 The Harvested Herd

Vulnerable retail investors or consumers who get relentlessly sheared and harves...

• Exit liquidity / Sheep waiting for shearing / Bagholders

键盘侠 jiàn pán xiá

🌐 Society & Subculture ⌨️ Keyboard Warrior

Someone cowardly and timid in real life who acts righteous, aggressive, and omni...

• Keyboard warrior / Basement dweller troll

凡尔赛 fán ěr sài

🌐 Society & Subculture 💎 Humble-Bragging

The art of complaining or appearing frustrated while subtly flexing immense weal...

• Humblebragging / Subtle flexing / Champagne problems

绿叶 lǜ yè

🌐 Society & Subculture 🍃 Background Extra

A supportive sidekick or background figure whose role is solely to highlight the...

• Supporting foil / Sidekick / Background character

岁月静好 suì yuè jìng hǎo

🌐 Society & Subculture 🕊️ Sheltered Naivety

Living in blissful, sheltered ignorance of harsh societal realities (often follo...

• Sheltered naivety / Toxic positivity / Willful ignorance

黑天鹅 hēi tiān é

🌐 Society & Subculture 🦏 Systemic Shock

A catastrophic, unprecedented event that was deemed statistically impossible unt...

• Black Swan event / High-impact systemic surprise

电子功德 diàn zǐ gōng dé

🌐 Society & Subculture 🔔 Cyber-Piety

Accumulating virtual karma points through respectful reposts, spiritual apps, an...

• Cyber-blessings / Digital karma accrual