宝藏男孩bǎo zàng nán hái

Treasure boy (a hidden gem)

bǎo zàng nán hái!宝藏男孩！A real treasure!

宝藏男孩 means “treasure boy”: a young man with talents you did not expect. The same 宝藏 works in front of almost any noun, for any hidden gem.

Took off: 2019
Started in: Fan slang
Today: Now everyday Chinese

What it means

宝藏 means “treasure”. In front of a noun, it says “a great find that not many people know about”. A 宝藏男孩 sings, cooks and fixes bikes, and you keep finding out more.

The pattern is often written 宝藏XX. Common forms are 宝藏女孩, a girl with hidden talents, 宝藏歌曲, a song you are glad you found, and 宝藏小店, a small shop worth the trip.

How people use it

Today it is mostly praise. 宝藏 works for people, shops, songs, films and apps.

Use it when you want to share a find. 宝藏博主 is a blogger worth following, and 宝藏小店 is a shop you tell your friends about.

里昂

我们新同事会弹吉他
wǒ men xīn tóng shì huì tán jí tā
Our new coworker plays guitar.
他不是还会画画吗？
tā bú shì hái huì huà huà ma?
Doesn’t he draw, too?
对，昨天还给大家做了蛋糕
duì, zuó tiān hái gěi dà jiā zuò le dàn gāo
Yep. And yesterday he baked a cake for everyone.
宝藏男孩啊！
bǎo zàng nán hái a!
A real treasure boy!

More examples

他会唱歌还会做饭，真是宝藏男孩。
tā huì chàng gē hái huì zuò fàn, zhēn shì bǎo zàng nán hái.
He sings and he cooks. A real treasure.
我发现了一家宝藏小店，东西又好又便宜。
wǒ fā xiàn le yì jiā bǎo zàng xiǎo diàn, dōng xi yòu hǎo yòu pián yi.
I found a hidden-gem shop. Good stuff, and cheap.
这是我的宝藏歌单，分享给你。
zhè shì wǒ de bǎo zàng gē dān, fēn xiǎng gěi nǐ.
This is my treasure playlist. Here, I’m sharing it with you.

Where it came from

The name started as a jab. A 2019 Jiemian article traces it to a 2016 Weibo post by a young actor about rumors: he wrote that a person who carries treasure always meets hungry wolves. His critics then called him a 宝藏男孩, someone with so much gossip that you could dig forever.

Fans turned it around, and the praise meaning took over. In December 2019, 语言文字周报 put 宝藏XX on its list of the ten most popular internet phrases of the year. It noted that the pattern can still mean either thing: hidden talents, or a celebrity with too much to dig up.