Work & Hustle2018informal

割韭菜

gē jiǔ cài

Harvesting leeks — scamming or exploiting consumers/investors, especially through overpriced products or bad investments.

Origin & Background

Leeks grow back after being cut, symbolizing how consumers/investors keep coming back to be exploited again.

Examples

That crypto project is just 割韭菜.

别被割韭菜了。(Don't get scammed.)

Related Slang

内卷

nèi juǎn

Involution — excessive, often pointless competition where everyone works harder but nobody gains more.

打工人

dǎ gōng rén

Working people / wage slaves — a self-deprecating term workers use to describe themselves.

996

jiǔ jiǔ liù

Working 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week — describes the grueling work culture in Chinese tech companies.

卡点

kǎ diǎn

Arriving at exactly the last possible moment — being precisely on time with zero margin.