吃大锅饭

吃大鍋飯

chīdàguōfàn

phrase

Meanings

1 to eat from the big communal pot (lit.)
2 to be rewarded equally regardless of effort
3 egalitarianism that blunts incentives; (pejorative) the freeloading work culture of planned-economy-era 国企

Characters

Examples

以前国营单位就是吃大锅饭，干多干少一个样。

Yǐqián guóyíng dānwèi jiù shì chī dàguōfàn, gàn duō gàn shǎo yí ge yàng.

Old state-run work units ate from the big pot — whether you worked hard or barely at all, the pay was the same.

绩效考核就是为了打破吃大锅饭的局面。

Jìxiào kǎohé jiù shì wèile dǎpò chī dàguōfàn de júmiàn.

Performance reviews exist precisely to break the 'common pot' dynamic.

Tips

history

The 大锅饭 (literally a single enormous communal cooking pot) was a real Great Leap Forward-era collective-dining practice (late 1950s People's Communes) where villages ate from one shared pot for free. After the reforms of 1978 onward, 吃大锅饭 became the standard pejorative for pre-reform work units — everyone eating equally regardless of contribution, which Deng-era reformers cast as the original sin of inefficiency.

Stroke Order

吃 chī

大 dà

锅 guō

饭 fàn