是个狼人shì gè láng rén

A werewolf (tougher than tough)

nǐ shì gè láng rén.你是个狼人。You’re a werewolf.

是个狼人 means “is a werewolf”. It is half-joking praise for someone who does something wild or extreme and gets a good result.

Took off: 2019
Started in: A Weibo joke
Today: Fading

What it means

It starts from 是个狠人, “is a ruthless person”, said about someone tough who does what others would not dare.

The characters 狠, “ruthless”, and 狼, “wolf”, look almost the same, and 狼 has one more stroke. So a 狼人 is one stroke more ruthless than a 狠人. The word 狼人 also means “werewolf”, which makes the joke.

It is a tease as much as praise. You say it when someone breaks the usual rules and it works anyway.

How people use it

You see 是个狼人 less than in 2019, but people still understand it. 狠人 on its own is still common slang for a tough or fearless person.

亮亮

我室友下着大雨去跑步
wǒ shì yǒu xià zhe dà yǔ qù pǎo bù
My roommate went running in the pouring rain.
跑了十公里，回来还做了晚饭
pǎo le shí gōng lǐ, huí lai hái zuò le wǎn fàn
Ten kilometers, and then he made dinner.
你室友是个狼人吧
nǐ shì yǒu shì gè láng rén ba
Your roommate’s a werewolf.
我也觉得
wǒ yě jué de
I think so too.

More examples

他考试前一天才开始复习，还考了第一，真是个狼人。
tā kǎo shì qián yì tiān cái kāi shǐ fù xí, hái kǎo le dì yī, zhēn shì gè láng rén.
He started studying the day before the exam and still came first. What a werewolf.
零下十度还穿短裤，你是个狼人。
líng xià shí dù hái chuān duǎn kù, nǐ shì gè láng rén.
Shorts at minus ten degrees? You’re a werewolf.

Where it came from

Sixth Tone, citing Baidu’s encyclopedia, says a Weibo user joked that one more stroke on 狠 would make someone “a dash more ruthless than ruthless”, and so turned 狠人 into 狼人.

In December 2019 the national language monitoring center put 是个狼人 on its list of internet phrases of the year. It explains the phrase as “a little more ruthless than ruthless”: someone who does not play by the rules and still gets a surprisingly good result.