凡尔赛 Fán ěr sài
The humblebrag, named after a palace.
The short answer
OnlineNow commonChecked November 2026
凡尔赛 — Versailles — describes humblebragging: a complaint or casual remark engineered to reveal something enviable. The art is the pretense of modesty.
In a chat
- 亮亮 Liangliang
唉，老板又给我涨工资了，交的税又多了，好烦。
Ugh, my boss gave me another raise. Now I pay even more tax. So annoying.
- 灯灯 Dengdeng
又来了，别凡尔赛了！
Here we go again. Stop humblebragging!
- 亮亮 Liangliang
我说的是真的嘛。
I'm just being honest.
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How to reply
好好好，凡尔赛大师。
Sure, sure, master of the humblebrag.
When not to use it
- It says someone shows off. Use it with friends who will laugh, not with people you just met.
What it means
The classic 凡尔赛 post has three parts: a humble complaint (“my husband is so annoying”), an extravagant detail (“he insisted on sending the driver with me again”), and a rueful sign-off (“how do I make him stop?”). The complaint is the costume; the detail is the point.
As a verb or adjective — 他好凡尔赛 — it tags the behavior instantly. The English “humblebrag” covers the same move; the Chinese version just comes with a palace attached.
How people use it
It is commentary more than self-description: people rarely admit to 凡尔赛-ing, though the self-aware do it on purpose as a joke. “凡学” (Versailles studies) is the mock-academic name for analyzing the form.
The specific crime is showing off while pretending not to. If the showing-off is open — a plain luxury post, no complaint attached — Chinese has other words for that; 凡尔赛 exists precisely for the disguised version.
Where it comes from
The Weibo blogger 小奶球 is credited with the name. It comes from the manga The Rose of Versailles, whose aristocrats live in easy luxury. A Douban group that studied this way of posting started in May 2020.
In early November 2020, a Weibo user's posts went viral: she mentioned, as if in passing, that she offered a nanny 25,000 yuan a month. People shared them as model 凡尔赛文学, and 咬文嚼字 put it on the 2020 top-ten list beside neijuan and dagongren.
In use
2 examples“烦死了，公司又发了一箱螃蟹，根本吃不完。”太凡尔赛了。
“So annoying, the company sent another crate of crabs — we can't finish them.” Peak humblebrag.
他又凡尔赛了，说自己家房子太小，只有一百四十平。
Humblebragging again — he says his place is too small, a mere 140 square meters.
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.