"Unfinished kids" — Phrase of the week
Our phrase of the week is: "unfinished kids" (烂尾娃 làn wěi wá).
Context
Chinese Internet slang is a fast evolving language. New words and phrases are regularly created by internet users based on events and trends occurring in China.
Sometimes they become popular memes, and take on a life of their own. While other phrases appear fleetingly, and disappear just as quickly.
Some new phrases draw from other slang terms, or combine internet slang applied to a different context.
There is one phrase we have been following recently which appeared earlier this year. The phrase has become more popular in recent weeks, and seems to be here to stay.
It's linked to the intensely competitive environment in China, in which kids are educated and pressured by their parents to achieve high scores at school and find a decent job after graduation.
A new term has been trending online recently, "unfinished kids".
It mainly refers to children with parents who invest a significant amount of resources in their education, including time, energy, and money, in the hope of helping them achieve excellent results.
However, in the end, the results are not ideal and the goals have not been met, just like an "intensive parenting project" that has been left unfinished.
最近网上流行一个新词，“烂尾娃”，主要是指父母在孩子教育上投入了大量资源，包括时间、精力和金钱，希望通过各种方式让孩子取得优异的成绩，但最终发现效果并不理想，没有达到预期的目标，就像是“鸡娃工程”烂尾了。
Zuìjìn wǎngshàng liúxíng yíge xīncí, “làn wěi wá,” zhǔyào shì zhǐ fùmǔ zài háizi jiàoyù shàng tóurù le dàliàng zīyuán, bāokuò shíjiān, jīnglì hé jīnqián, xīwàng tōngguò gèzhǒng fāngshì ràng háizi qǔdé yōuyì de chéngjì, dàn zuìzhōng fāxiàn xiàoguǒ bìng bù lǐxiǎng, méiyǒu dádào yùqí de mùbiāo, jiù xiàng shì “jīwá gōngchéng” lànwěi le.
And with that we have our Sinica Phrase of the Week.
What it means
The phrase “unfinished kids” can be split into two parts: "rotten end" (烂尾 lànwěi) and "kids (娃 wá). Sometimes it’s translated directly as “rotten end kids” but we prefer, “unfinished kids” which gives a better idea of what it means.
“Unfinished kids” combines two other modern phrases.
The first is "unfinished buildings", which directly translates as "rotten end buildings" (烂尾楼 lànwěilóu).
These are large construction projects that remain unfinished, often due to financial problems or corruption, leaving buyers—who have already paid for their new apartments—stranded with nowhere to live and no way to recover their money.
The phrase, "unfinished kids," carries a similar implication: a child who falls short of their parents' high expectations, unable to secure a job despite the significant investment in their education.
The second phrase is "helicopter parenting", which directly translates as "chicken kids" (鸡娃 jīwá).
"Chicken kids," comes from the expression, "injecting chicken blood" (打鸡血 dǎ jīxiě), which means to "motivate". It first came into use in the 1960’s inspired by the now-debunked practice of injecting chicken’s blood which was thought to boost energy.
In the context of parenting, "injecting chicken blood into your kids" (鸡娃 jīwá) refers to parents who intensely push their children through extracurricular activities and rigorous studies, aiming to give them an edge in a highly competitive society.
The combination of these ideas into this new phrase, "unfinished kids" (烂尾娃 lànwěi wá), refers to children whose parents invest large amounts of resources into their education, including time, effort, and money, but despite these efforts, the children fail to meet expectations, whether in exams, school, or later life.
In this way, the children are compared to unfinished buildings: heavily invested in, but ultimately falling short of their intended outcomes.
The phrase captures the intense pressures of modern parenting in China, where fierce competition and societal expectations compel parents to place high demands on their children, often leading to burnout, leaving their kids in a state of uncertainty, much like an unfinished building.
Andrew Methven is the author of RealTime Mandarin, a resource to help you learn contemporary Chinese in context, and stay on top of the latest language trends in China.
Read more about how this story is being discussed in the Chinese media in this week’s RealTime Mandarin.