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Slang and internet Chinese 100
100
phrases
Reacting online
10
破防了 - my defences are broken - came out of gaming and now means something got past your emotional guard, usually a video that made you cry. 我裂开了 - I've cracked open - is the same idea played for laughs. Both are recent, and both are everywhere.
Praise, young style
10
太香了 - so fragrant - means something turned out great, and it comes from 真香, a meme about someone who swore he would not eat and then ate. 有点东西 - has a bit of something - is understated praise, and understatement is rare enough here to be worth noticing.
Knocking it down
10
就这？ - just this? - is two syllables of pure disappointment and is one of the most-used put-downs online. 翻车了 - the cart overturned - means a public failure, usually of someone who was showing off. 离谱 means absurd, off the scale.
How you're doing
10
躺平 - lying flat - and 摆烂 - letting it rot - are the two words that defined a generation's response to overwork, and they are not identical: 躺平 is opting out, 摆烂 is staying in and no longer trying. 内耗 is the exhausting internal argument with yourself.
Working life
10
打工人 - the working person - was reclaimed as a badge around 2020 and is now said with defiant pride. 社畜 came from Japanese 社畜 and means company livestock. 报复性熬夜 - revenge staying-up - is staying awake to reclaim time the day stole from you.
Dating talk
10
磕到了 - I've been hit - is fandom slang for shipping a couple, and 磕 originally means to knock. 撒狗粮 - scattering dog food - is what couples do to single people, who are the 单身狗, the single dogs. The whole metaphor hangs together.
Shopping and fandom
10
种草 - planting grass - means making someone want to buy something, and 拔草 - pulling the grass up - is either buying it or losing interest. 割韭菜 - cutting chives - describes exploiting people repeatedly, because chives grow back after every cut.
Group-chat shorthand
10
已读不回 - read and not replied - names the specific offence, and having a name for it is what makes it accusable. 手动狗头 - manual dog head - marks the previous line as a joke, standing in for the dog-face emoji, and it is the Chinese internet's irony marker.
Set phrases from the internet
10
人在家中坐 is half a line - the rest is 祸从天上来, disaster comes from the sky - and Chinese speakers routinely say only the first half and let you finish it. 细思极恐 - think carefully, extremely frightening - compresses a whole sentence into four characters.
Current buzzwords
10
内卷 - involution - is the word for competition that raises effort without raising reward, borrowed from anthropology and now used about school, work and life. 松弛感 - a sense of slackness - is the quality young Chinese now say they want instead, and the pair tells you where the culture is moving.
Related categories
Softening & hinting 100
Conversation flow 100
Set phrases & idioms 100
Four-character idioms 100
Telling a story 100
Arguing a case 100
Grumbling 100
Joking and irony 100
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中文