小镇做题家xiǎo zhèn zuò tí jiā

Small-town exam ace

wǒ jiù shì xiǎo zhèn zuò tí jiā.我就是小镇做题家。I’m a small-town exam ace.

小镇做题家, “small-town problem solver”, is a young person from a small town who studied hard, did well in exams and got into a good university, then found that exams were the only thing they had been trained for.

Took off: 2020
Started in: A Douban group
Today: Now everyday Chinese

What it means

做题 means “doing practice questions”, the endless exercises of Chinese school. 做题家 is a mock title, built like 科学家, “scientist”. 小镇 is a small town.

The label is mostly about yourself. It says: I am good at tests, and I do not have the money, contacts or know-how that city kids grew up with.

How people use it

People use it about themselves, with a mix of pride and self-pity. Before 2022 it was mostly a light joke; since then it can carry more bitterness. Calling someone else a 小镇做题家 can sound like a sneer.

里昂

我室友已经去了十几个国家
wǒ shì yǒu yǐ jīng qù le shí jǐ gè guó jiā
My roommate has already been to over ten countries.
你呢？
nǐ ne?
And you?
我第一次坐飞机，就是来上大学
wǒ dì yī cì zuò fēi jī, jiù shì lái shàng dà xué
My first flight was to come to college.
小镇做题家就是我
xiǎo zhèn zuò tí jiā jiù shì wǒ
That’s me, the small-town test-taker.
能考到这里已经很厉害了
néng kǎo dào zhè lǐ yǐ jīng hěn lì hai le
Getting in here is already impressive.

More examples

我是从小镇考出来的，典型的小镇做题家。
wǒ shì cóng xiǎo zhèn kǎo chū lái de, diǎn xíng de xiǎo zhèn zuò tí jiā.
I tested my way out of a small town. A typical small-town exam ace.
进了大学才发现，我只是个小镇做题家。
jìn le dà xué cái fā xiàn, wǒ zhǐ shì gè xiǎo zhèn zuò tí jiā.
Only at university did I see that I’m just a small-town exam ace.

Where it came from

The term began in a Douban group called 985废物引进计划, roughly “a program to take in 985 failures”. 985 is a list of China’s top universities. The group was founded on May 10, 2020, and had about 80,000 members by late July, according to The Paper. Members wrote about leaving a small town for a top school and feeling lost there.

One member’s summary became the usual definition: young people who come from small towns, study hard, are good at exams and lack a wider view and resources. The term came back in July 2022, when a magazine commentary used it for ordinary job seekers and many people found that unfair. That December, 语言文字周报 put 小镇做题家 fourth on its list of the ten most popular internet phrases of 2022.

The original. There is no single image. The term came from posts in the Douban group. The Paper wrote about the group in July 2020. The Paper (in Chinese)