老式人类lǎo shì rén lèi

Old-fashioned human

wǒ shì lǎo shì rén lèi.我是老式人类。I’m an old-fashioned human.

老式人类 means “old-fashioned human”. Young people use it, half proud and half joking, for habits that feel out of date: tea in a thermos, a walk in the park, the same songs as ten years ago.

Took off: 2025
Started in: Xiaohongshu posts
Today: Current

What it means

老式 means “old-style” or “old-fashioned”. 人类 means “humans”, so the label sounds like a scientific name for a type of person.

People “diagnose” themselves with it. The Xiaohongshu tag was 正式确诊为老式人类, “officially diagnosed as an old-fashioned human”. The symptoms are small and harmless: playing back a voice message after you send it, buying classic clothes, carrying goji and chrysanthemum tea in a thermos, spending the weekend in a park instead of at a trendy café.

How people use it

It is current. You use it about yourself, usually with your evidence: the long johns, the wet market, the old TV drama you watch again. A related label is 老式年轻人, “old-fashioned young person”. Calling a friend 老式人类 is friendly teasing.

里昂

你包里怎么有个保温杯？
nǐ bāo lǐ zěn me yǒu gè bǎo wēn bēi?
Why is there a thermos in your bag?
里面是枸杞茶
lǐ miàn shì gǒu qǐ chá
It’s goji tea.
哈哈，老式人类
hā hā, lǎo shì rén lèi
Ha ha, old-fashioned human.
我还爱听十年前的歌
wǒ hái ài tīng shí nián qián de gē
I also love songs from ten years ago.
确诊了
què zhěn le
Diagnosis confirmed.

More examples

我周末只想去公园散步，我是老式人类。
wǒ zhōu mò zhǐ xiǎng qù gōng yuán sàn bù, wǒ shì lǎo shì rén lèi.
All I want on weekends is a walk in the park. I’m an old-fashioned human.
她发完语音还要再听一遍，典型的老式人类。
tā fā wán yǔ yīn hái yào zài tīng yí biàn, diǎn xíng de lǎo shì rén lèi.
She plays back her voice message after she sends it. A typical old-fashioned human.

Where it came from

The label spread on Xiaohongshu at the end of 2025. Under the tag, young users listed their old habits and counted how many they had, according to an analysis by TopKlout that CBNData republished in January 2026.

The magazine 新周刊 added a list of 14 “old-fashioned rules for living” to check yourself against, according to an essay republished on Huxiu. We did not find the magazine’s original list.

Year-end reviews, such as one on Woshipm, counted it among the memes of the second half of 2025.

The original. Xiaohongshu notes under the tag 正式确诊为老式人类, where young users list their old habits: tea in a thermos, crochet, plants, old TV dramas. CBNData’s article describes the trend. CBNData (in Chinese)