逆袭nì xí

逆 means against or backward, and 袭 means to attack. The slang meaning is about people, not battles: a weak student who gets into a top university, a team that wins from far behind, an ordinary person who suddenly does well.

It works as a verb and as a noun. 逆袭成功 is “a successful comeback”, and 人生逆袭 is a life that turns around.

逆袭 is now ordinary Chinese and a standard plot. Web novels and short video dramas are full of 逆袭 stories, such as the poor young woman who rises at her company. You can also use it about yourself, half joking, before an exam or a match.

The word is old, but the comeback meaning took off online around 2012. People’s Digest, in its review of the internet words of 2012, called it a common term in online games for striking back successfully from a bad position.

Wiktionary notes that the slang meaning was influenced by Japanese, which writes the same word 逆襲.