“The Odyssey Years” — Phrase of the Week
A new phrase to describe a decade of wandering
Our phrase of the week is: “Odyssey Years” (奥德赛时期 ào dé sài shí qī)
Context
According to a recent survey, around half of recent graduates in China say they lack a clear sense of purpose or direction after university. With millions of people competing for a shrinking pool of opportunities, the pressure on them is relentless.
So, many graduates in China are opting to drift instead of following the usual script of entering the world of work and getting married.
In this column we’ve explored phrases which define this experience. From “involuted competition” (内卷) to taking on an underpaid “work horse” (牛马) job, and eventually giving up and “lying flat” (躺平).
This experience of rejecting the usual path and choosing to drift now has a name. It’s a phrase which has been circulating on the Chinese internet since February this year, and is explored in a recent article by current affairs magazine Sanlian Lifeweek (三联生活周刊).
The article opens with a familiar genre of street interview shared on social media, in which passers-by are asked why they’re out on the streets during working hours.
The answer to that question often contains our Phrase of the Week:
‘I’m going through my Odyssey Years.’”
“我在经历我的奥德赛时期。”
And with that, we have our Sinica Phrase of the Week.
What it means
“Odyssey Years” (奥德赛时期 àodésài shíqī) is a phrase borrowed from English. Breaking it down: “Odyssey” (奥德赛), a phonetic transliteration of Homer’s Greek epic, The Odyssey, and the word for “period of time” or “years” (时期).
The phrase was first coined back in 2007 by New York Times columnist David Brooks.
Brooks argued that life once had four stages: childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. He suggested there are now at least six stages. Including a new phase between adolescence and adulthood which he called “the Odyssey Years”.
This is a reference to how, after the Trojan War, Odysseus spent ten years enduring endless hardships before finally returning home to his wife and son.
Nearly two decades after Brooks coined it, the phrase has found a second life in China. It first began resonating in February this year through posts shared on lifestyle platform Red Note (小红书), and then started to go viral across the Chinese internet in April.
“The Odyssey Years” is how young people in China describe the drifting years in their twenties: switching constantly between jobs, cities, and studies, delaying marriage and children, and often still relying on parents for financial support.
It sits alongside related buzzwords describing the same generation, like “slow employment” (慢就业) and “gap year” (间隔年).
Part of why the phrase caught on is that it gives a name to this lack of direction. It reflects a growing rejection of the “social clock” (社会时钟), the expectation that life should happen on schedule, and echoes another popular saying among young Chinese:
“Life is a wilderness of possibilities, not a path set in stone.”
人生是旷野而非轨道。
Another phrase which has appeared alongside the Odyssey Years in these conversations in China is “emerging adulthood” (成人初显期), which is another imported term coined by American psychologist Jeffrey Arnett in 2000 to describe the same in-between stage of life.
But it’s the Homer reference, though, that has captured imaginations in China.
Invoking Odysseus makes the drifting feel less depressing, and offers hope that eventually a destination will be reached. But unlike Odysseus, China’s young people today might have no Ithaca waiting for them. So this new label is a way of romanticising that decade of confusion, tinged with resignation and a little bitterness.
The phrase’s popularity in China came well before and is unrelated to Christopher Nolan’s interpretation of the epic, starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, which opens in mainland China on August 14.
But with the hype around the movie already building, the phrase is likely to get a boost in the coming weeks, and could be an early contender for our Phrase of the Year in 2026.
What do you think: Will the “Odyssey Years” take hold and be in our top ten phrases of 2026?
Andrew Methven is the author of RealTime Mandarin, a resource which helps you bridge the gap to real-world fluency in Mandarin, stay informed about China, and communicate with confidence—all through weekly immersion in real news. Subscribe for free here.
