韭菜 (jiǔcài): Chinese chives

Meanings

1 Chinese chives
2 garlic chives
3 (slang) naive retail investors or consumers repeatedly exploited for profit

Characters

韭

Examples

韭菜鸡蛋是家常菜。

Jiǔcài jīdàn shì jiāchángcài.

Chives and eggs is a common home-cooked dish.

股市里的散户常被称为韭菜。

Gǔshì lǐ de sǎnhù cháng bèi chēng wéi jiǔcài.

Retail investors in the stock market are often called "chives."

Tips

culture

In recent Chinese internet slang, 割韭菜 (gē jiǔcài, "cutting chives") describes how big players repeatedly fleece ordinary investors or consumers — chives are famous for growing back quickly after being cut, so the harvest is endless. 韭菜 has become the standard metaphor for easily-exploited small fish.