打酱油dǎ jiàng yóu

The literal meaning is a small errand. The meme meaning is “I’m not involved”. You say it when someone asks for your opinion and you would rather not give one, or to describe yourself as a bystander.

It also works for a very small part. If you joined a project or a game and did almost nothing, you were 打酱油. People who always stay out of things are the 酱油党, “the soy sauce party”.

It is still everyday Chinese. 我是来打酱油的 is a polite, joking way to say you are only watching, in a group chat, a meeting or a comment thread. Friends also use it about a teammate who did very little.

In 2008, a Guangzhou TV reporter stopped a man in the street and asked what he thought about a celebrity scandal that was all over the news. He answered, in ruder words, that it was none of his business: he had only come out to buy soy sauce.

The clip spread on forums, and 打酱油 became a standard way to say “no comment”. In December 2008, China News Service included it in a roundup of the year’s hot internet words, as the word for things you do not know about, do not want to talk about, or have nothing to do with.