打工人 dǎ gōng rén
A self-mocking name for everyone who works for a living.
The short answer
CasualNow commonChecked November 2026
Dagongren literally means “working person” — a hired hand. Since 2020 it has been the affectionate, self-mocking banner name for anyone who gets up and goes to work, from interns to middle managers.
In a chat
- 亮亮 Liangliang
早上好，打工人！
Good morning, fellow worker!
- 灯灯 Dengdeng
早……又是上班的一天。
Morning… Another work day.
- 亮亮 Liangliang
打工人，打工魂，打工都是人上人！
Workers, worker spirit, workers are the best of the best!
- 灯灯 Dengdeng
哈哈，好吧，冲！
Haha, okay, let's go!
In the Dengdeng app, Dengdeng and his friends text you in Chinese every day, at your level.
How to reply
打工人加油！
Keep going, worker!
When not to use it
What it means
Chinese used to sort workers by how good the job sounded: 白领 (white collar) sounded proud, 社畜 (corporate livestock, borrowed from Japanese) sounded bitter. Dagongren levels everyone: the programmer, the cashier, and the boss's assistant are all people who 打工 — work for somebody else.
The word carries both halves of the feeling at once: dignity (everyone who works is a worker) and irony (nobody here owns the means of production). It lets people complain about work while celebrating the people doing it.
How people use it
The signature move is the morning greeting: 早安，打工人！ “Good morning, worker!” — posted with coffee, crowded subways, or a tired selfie. Variations run through the day: lunchbox shots, late-night overtime desks.
You can also use it descriptively: 打工人不容易, “it's not easy being a worker”. It is almost always friendly; few people use it about others with contempt.
Where it comes from
打工人 went viral in the autumn of 2020. Catchphrases like 打工人，打工魂，打工都是人上人 — “worker, worker soul; to work is to be above ordinary people” — spread as morning-greeting memes, part cheer, part sigh.
It landed on the 2020 year-end internet-word lists next to neijuan, and unlike most list words it never left. Years on, people still open their workday posts with it.
In use
2 examples早安，打工人！又要挤地铁了。
Morning, fellow worker! Time to squeeze onto the subway again.
周末也要开会，打工人真的不容易。
Meetings on the weekend too — being a worker really isn't easy.
The characters
Explore individuallyIndividual character meanings do not always explain the meaning of the whole word.
Sources
This guide is original Dengdeng editorial content, offered under CC BY-SA 4.0. The linked dictionary entries adapt CC-CEDICT under the same license.