dǎgōngrén: 打工人 - Worker, Laborer, "The Working People"

• Keywords: dagongren meaning, 打工人, dǎgōngrén, Chinese internet slang, Chinese work culture, worker meme China, what is dagongren, 996 culture, moving bricks, touching fish, 社畜, 上班族
• Summary: Discover the meaning of dǎgōngrén (打工人), a viral Chinese internet term that has become a cultural identity for modern workers. More than just “worker,” `dǎgōngrén` captures the shared experience of young Chinese professionals navigating long hours and workplace pressures with self-deprecating humor, resilience, and a powerful sense of solidarity. This page explores its cultural significance, practical usage, and relationship to concepts like “996” and “involution” (内卷).

• Pinyin (with tone marks): dǎgōngrén
• Part of Speech: Noun
• HSK Level: N/A
• Concise Definition: A modern, self-referential term for any person who works for a living, often with a humorous, resigned, or motivational connotation.
• In a Nutshell: `打工人` is not your textbook word for “worker.” It's a social identity embraced by millions of young Chinese people, from programmers and designers to baristas and delivery drivers. It literally means “person who does a job,” but it carries the collective feeling of the daily grind. It's a way of saying, “I work hard, I get tired, but I'm in this together with everyone else.” It mixes cynicism about corporate culture with a resilient pride in one's own labor.

• 打 (dǎ): To hit; to do; to engage in. While its base meaning is “to strike,” in many compounds it takes on the meaning of performing an action.
• 工 (gōng): Work; labor; project. This character is foundational to words related to industry and employment.
• 人 (rén): Person; people. A simple pictograph of a person walking.

The characters combine to form `打工 (dǎgōng)`, which means “to work part-time” or “to work for others” (as opposed to owning your own business). Adding `人 (rén)` turns it into “the person who works for others.” While `打工` traditionally referred to manual or temporary labor, the modern term `打工人` has expanded to encompass nearly all forms of employment, especially office work.

`打工人` exploded in popularity on Chinese social media around 2020. It represents a significant cultural shift from the aspirational, “anything is possible” narratives of the 2010s to a more grounded, realistic, and collective mindset. Its rise is a direct response to immense workplace pressures in modern China, epitomized by concepts like `996` (working 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week) and `内卷 (nèijuǎn)` (“involution,” or a zero-sum rat race for diminishing returns). Instead of chasing the elusive dream of becoming a `老板 (lǎobǎn - boss)`, many young people have embraced the `打工人` identity. It's a way to find dignity and humor in the struggle. This contrasts with the Western concept of “the hustle” or “hustle culture,” which often emphasizes individual ambition and glorifies overwork for personal gain. `打工人`, while acknowledging hard work, is less about “getting ahead” and more about “getting by” with a sense of shared community. It's a collective sigh and a pat on the back all in one. It rejects the overly optimistic, top-down narrative of `后浪 (hòulàng - the next wave)` and instead creates a grassroots identity from the bottom up.

`打工人` is almost exclusively informal and is a staple of digital communication.

• On Social Media: This is its natural habitat. You'll see it in memes, video captions, and posts about waking up early, needing coffee, feeling tired on a Monday, or celebrating Friday. A picture of a sunrise might be captioned, “早安, 打工人！” (Good morning, fellow workers!).
• Among Friends and Colleagues: It's used as a term of endearment and solidarity. Friends might greet each other with “Hey, `打工人`!” to humorously acknowledge their shared fate. It's a way to complain about work without sounding genuinely negative.
• Connotation: The connotation is a mix of self-deprecation, resilience, and humor. It's rarely used in a truly negative or complaining way; instead, it's a coping mechanism. Using it shows you're in on the joke and part of the collective experience. It is not appropriate for formal business contexts, like a report or a meeting with senior leadership.

• Example 1:
  • 早安，打工人！又是充满希望的一天！
  • Pinyin: Zǎo ān, dǎgōngrén! Yòu shì chōngmǎn xīwàng de yī tiān!
  • English: Good morning, worker! It's another day full of hope!
  • Analysis: This is a classic, motivational-but-ironic phrase used on social media. It mimics corporate cheerfulness but is used by `打工人` to poke fun at it while psyching themselves up for the day.
• Example 2:
  • 累吗？累就对了，舒服是留给老板的。我们打工人只能加油。
  • Pinyin: Lèi ma? Lèi jiù duì le, shūfu shì liú gěi lǎobǎn de. Wǒmen dǎgōngrén zhǐnéng jiāyóu.
  • English: Are you tired? It's right to be tired; comfort is for the bosses. We workers can only keep pushing.
  • Analysis: This sentence perfectly captures the cynical humor and resilience of the `打工人` spirit. It draws a clear line between workers and owners.
• Example 3:
  • 我不是什么帅哥美女，我只是一个平平无奇的打工人。
  • Pinyin: Wǒ bùshì shénme shuàigē měinǚ, wǒ zhǐshì yīgè píngpíng wú qí de dǎgōngrén.
  • English: I'm not some handsome guy or beautiful girl, I'm just an ordinary worker.
  • Analysis: A common self-deprecating line used online. It's a humorous way to state one's identity as being defined by work rather than other glamorous traits.
• Example 4:
  • 支持我每天起床的不是梦想，是工资。打工人，打工魂，打工都是人上人！
  • Pinyin: Zhīchí wǒ měitiān qǐchuáng de bùshì mèngxiǎng, shì gōngzī. Dǎgōngrén, dǎgōng hún, dǎgōng dōu shì rén shàng rén!
  • English: What gets me out of bed every day isn't my dream, it's my salary. Worker people, worker soul, working makes you a master of men!
  • Analysis: This is a popular rhyming meme. The last phrase, “人上人” (a person above others), is used with extreme irony, flipping a traditional saying about scholars and officials to celebrate the “nobility” of the humble worker.
• Example 5:
  • A: 你周末干嘛去？ B: 加班，打工人没有周末。
  • Pinyin: A: Nǐ zhōumò gàn嘛 qù? B: Jiābān, dǎgōngrén méiyǒu zhōumò.
  • English: A: What are you doing this weekend? B: Working overtime. Workers don't have weekends.
  • Analysis: A typical, half-joking, half-serious exchange between friends or colleagues that highlights the reality of long work hours.
• Example 6:
  • 今天也要努力搬砖啊，各位打工人！
  • Pinyin: Jīntiān yě yào nǔlì bānzhuān a, gèwèi dǎgōngrén!
  • English: We have to work hard at “moving bricks” again today, fellow workers!
  • Analysis: This connects `打工人` with another slang term, `搬砖 (bānzhuān)`, which humorously describes any form of repetitive work as “moving bricks.”
• Example 7:
  • 不管天气多坏，打工人都要准时上班。
  • Pinyin: Bùguǎn tiānqì duō huài, dǎgōngrén dōu yào zhǔnshí shàngbān.
  • English: No matter how bad the weather is, a worker has to get to work on time.
  • Analysis: This expresses the non-negotiable duty and discipline associated with being a `打工人`.
• Example 8:
  • 作为一名合格的打工人，我已经学会了如何高效摸鱼。
  • Pinyin: Zuòwéi yī míng hégé de dǎgōngrén, wǒ yǐjīng xuéhuì le rúhé gāoxiào mōyú.
  • English: As a qualified worker, I've already learned how to “touch fish” (slack off) efficiently.
  • Analysis: This shows the playful resistance within the `打工人` identity, linking it to the concept of `摸鱼 (mōyú)`, or finding clever ways to rest while on the clock.
• Example 9:
  • 打工人的午餐，简单对付一下就行了。
  • Pinyin: Dǎgōngrén de wǔcān, jiǎndān duìfù yīxià jiù xíng le.
  • English: A worker's lunch just needs to be simple and get the job done.
  • Analysis: This reflects the practical, no-frills lifestyle often associated with the term. The focus is on function over luxury.
• Example 10:
  • 他放弃了创业，选择当一个安稳的打工人。
  • Pinyin: Tā fàngqì le chuàngyè, xuǎnzé dāng yīgè ānwěn de dǎgōngrén.
  • English: He gave up on starting a business and chose to be a stable worker.
  • Analysis: This shows `打工人` used in a more narrative context, contrasting it with entrepreneurship (`创业 chuàngyè`) and highlighting the value of stability.

• Don't confuse with `工人 (gōngrén)`: `工人` is the traditional, formal word for “worker,” usually referring to blue-collar, industrial, or factory laborers. It carries historical and political weight (e.g., the “working class” in Marxist theory). `打工人` is modern, informal slang that applies to everyone who works for a wage, especially young white-collar professionals, and is defined by its cultural, internet-meme context.
  • Correct: 我们公司有很多年轻的打工人。(Our company has many young workers.)
  • Incorrect/Strange: 我们公司有很多年轻的工人。(This would imply the company primarily hires young factory workers, which might be true, but it misses the modern cultural nuance.)
• It's not just “employee” (`员工 yuángōng`): `员工` is a neutral, formal, and administrative term. It's the word a company would use to describe its staff. `打工人` is an identity people choose for themselves.
  • Formal: 公司有五百名员工。(The company has 500 employees.)
  • Informal/Identity: 我们都是给老板打工的打工人。(We are all workers who work for the boss.)
• Be mindful of formality: Never use `打工人` in a formal report, a business presentation to clients, or when addressing a superior you don't know well. It's strictly for informal, peer-to-peer communication. Using it in the wrong setting would seem unprofessional and flippant.

• 上班族 (shàngbānzú): “Office worker tribe.” A more neutral and slightly older term for people who commute to an office job. Less slangy than `打工人`.
• 996: The infamous “9am to 9pm, 6 days a week” work schedule common in China's tech industry. It's a major reason for the rise of the `打工人` identity.
• 内卷 (nèijuǎn): “Involution.” Intense, pointless internal competition. The feeling that you have to work harder and harder just to stay in the same place. This is the societal pressure that `打工人` responds to.
• 摸鱼 (mōyú): “To touch fish.” A popular slang term for slacking off, browsing the internet, or taking breaks at work. A key survival tactic for the self-aware `打工人`.
• 社畜 (shèchù): “Corporate livestock” (from Japanese). A much more cynical and negative term for a worker who is completely exploited by their company, with no autonomy. `打工人` has a more resilient and positive spin.
• 搬砖 (bānzhuān): “To move bricks.” A humorous metaphor for any job that is laborious, repetitive, or feels like grunt work, even if it's a white-collar job.
• 后浪 (hòulàng): “The next wave.” A term from a viral 2020 video celebrating China's youth. It was criticized for being out of touch, representing a privileged, consumerist youth, in stark contrast to the grounded reality of the `打工人`.
• 老板 (lǎobǎn): “Boss” or “owner.” The person the `打工人` works for; often seen as the one who enjoys the “comfort” while the `打工人` toils.
• 加班 (jiābān): To work overtime. A frequent activity and topic of complaint for every `打工人`.