画大饼
huà dà bǐng
Drawing a big pancake — making empty promises, especially by bosses promising raises or promotions that never come.
Origin
Traditional idiom repurposed for modern workplace culture, describing hollow promises from management.
Examples
My boss loves to 画大饼 but never delivers.
又画大饼了，这次我不信了。(Drawing another big pancake, but I won't believe it this time.)
Related terms
天台见
tiān tái jiàn
"See you on the roof" — gallows humor for having lost catastrophic money, usually on football bets or the stock market. The unspoken second half is that the rooftop is where you'd go to jump, so the phrase means roughly "I'm ruined" said with a laugh.
关灯吃面
guān dēng chī miàn
"Eating noodles with the lights off" — the standard way to say you took a bad loss in the market. Broader than a stock term now: any quiet, undramatic private misery.
草台班子
cǎo tái bān zi
Literally a 'straw-stage troupe' — any operation that looks official but is actually disorganized, unprofessional, and improvised; the viral extended form 'the whole world is one giant clown show' applies that to everything.
内卷
nèi juǎn
Involution — excessive, often pointless competition where everyone works harder but nobody gains more.