打工魂

dǎgōnghún

noun

Meanings

1 worker's soul; worker spirit
2 internet slang for the grind mindset of salaried workers in Chinese cities

Characters

Examples

早上七点起床挤地铁,打工魂又燃烧起来了。

Zǎoshang qīdiǎn qǐchuáng jǐdìtiě, dǎgōnghún yòu ránshāo qǐlái le.

Up at 7 to cram onto the subway — the worker's soul is burning again.

打工人没有打工魂可不行。

Dǎgōngrén méiyǒu dǎgōnghún kěbù xíng.

A wage slave without the worker's soul just won't do.

这首歌唱出了打工魂。

Zhè shǒu gēchàng chū le dǎgōnghún.

This song sings out the worker's soul.

Tips

register

Spun off from 2020's viral 打工人 (dǎgōngrén, "worker person") meme, which recast the somewhat blue-collar term 打工 (to work for someone) as a self-deprecating label for white-collar cubicle slaves. 打工魂 pushes the same joke into mock-epic territory — burning the "worker's soul" for someone else's KPIs.

culture

Part of a family of 2020s work-culture memes including 内卷 (involution), 躺平 (lying flat), 摸鱼 (skiving), and 996 (the 9am-9pm-6day tech work schedule).

Stroke Order

打 dǎ

工 gōng

魂 hún