Chinese slang
Everyday internet slang Chinese people actually use right now.
刀子dāozi
In fan and ACG culture, a scene in a story that is so sad, cruel, or heartbreaking that the audience feels stabbed; 发刀子 means the author deliberately wrote such a scene.
Slang抓马zhuā mǎ
A phonetic loanword of the English word 'drama': describing a person, situation, or whole day that feels excessively dramatic, over the top, or full of melodramatic conflict.
SlangAI全民制作人AI quán mín zhì zuò rén
A trending term on platforms like Bilibili, referring to ordinary individuals widely participating in image, music, and derivative content production using artificial intelligence tools.
Slang爆改bào gǎi
A dramatic, high-contrast transformation of a person, room, product, or idea, usually made for social-media impact.
Slang逆天nì tiān
A flexible internet adjective for something outrageously absurd, extreme, or unbelievably impressive.
Slang抽象chōu xiàng
A Chinese internet label for absurd, anti-logical, surreal humor or behavior that is funny because it makes little conventional sense.
Slang擦边cā biān
Content or behavior that tests the edge of rules, especially suggestive online posts made to attract attention without openly crossing a line.
Slang手搓shǒu cuō
To hand-build or hack something together from scratch, often with impressive DIY effort.
Slang老登lǎo dēng
A mocking online label for older men, old-school tastes, or stubborn authority figures, now extended into pop-culture and finance commentary.
Slang老六lǎo liù
A joking insult for someone who plays sneaky, unpredictable, or annoyingly clever tricks, especially in games and online banter.
Slang破防pò fáng
To have one’s emotional defenses broken by something touching, upsetting, embarrassing, or painfully accurate.
Slang整活zhěng huó
To deliberately do something creative, funny, unexpected, or performative for entertainment value.
Slang发疯fā fēng
A playful way to describe letting your emotions spill out in exaggerated, chaotic online speech.
Slang露脚趾羞耻症lù jiǎozhǐ xiūchǐ zhèng
A joking label for feeling embarrassed or exposed when wearing open-toed shoes in public.
Slang吃谷chī gǔ
ACG fandom slang for buying, collecting, and displaying character merchandise, especially badges, cards, acrylic stands, and plushies.
Slang松弛感sōngchí gǎn
Effortless, unbothered ease — the aspirational quality of staying calm and unhurried when things go wrong, or of a style that looks beautifully un-forced.
Slang偷感tōu gǎn
The self-conscious urge to do things furtively — working out, job hunting, even existing — as if any observed effort would be embarrassing; 'doing everything like you're stealing'.
Slang淡人dàn rén
A low-reactivity person: emotionally muted, hard to excite, replies 'ok' to everything — the opposite of a 浓人 (nóng rén), an intense, expressive person.
Slang班味bān wèi
The unmistakable aura of a worn-down office worker — dull eyes, wrinkled shirt, gray complexion — that clings to you once you've started working and is famously hard to wash off.
Slang那咋了nà zǎ le
'And? So what?' — a breezy, northeastern-flavored shrug used to deflect judgment or anxiety; the motto of not letting anything get to you.
Slang显眼包xiǎnyǎnbāo
An adorably attention-grabbing person (or thing) — the class clown, the friend who can't help standing out in a funny, endearing way.
Slang摆烂bǎi làn
To deliberately stop trying and let a bad situation get worse — an ostentatious, even cheerful, embrace of failure.
Slang躺平tǎng píng
To opt out of the rat race — rejecting overwork, consumerism and societal pressure by doing the bare minimum.
Slang内卷nèijuǎn
Pointless, escalating internal competition where everyone works harder and harder but nobody actually ends up better off.
Slang搭子dāzi
A low-commitment activity partner — someone you team up with for one specific thing (eating lunch, going to the gym, traveling) without the obligations of a full friendship.