主要看气质zhǔ yào kàn qì zhì

It’s all about presence

zhǔ yào kàn qì zhì.主要看气质。It’s all about presence.

主要看气质 means “what matters is your presence”, not your looks. People used it as a caption for their photos, serious or not.

Took off: 2015
Started in: A singer’s Weibo photo
Today: Fading

What it means

气质 has no exact English word. It covers presence, manner and the impression a person gives. The phrase says that looks come second.

It can defend a photo, make fun of an unflattering one, or work as a backhanded compliment: if you praise only someone’s 气质, you are not praising their face.

How people use it

It is fading as a meme. 气质 itself is an everyday word, and 有气质 is a normal compliment.

灯灯

帮我选一张头像
bāng wǒ xuǎn yì zhāng tóu xiàng
Help me pick a profile picture.
第三张你闭眼了
dì sān zhāng nǐ bì yǎn le
You blinked in the third one.
闭眼怎么了？主要看气质
bì yǎn zěn me le? zhǔ yào kàn qì zhì
So what if I blinked? It’s all about presence.
好吧，气质满分
hǎo ba, qì zhì mǎn fēn
Fine. Full marks for presence.

More examples

这张照片拍得不好看？没关系，主要看气质。
zhè zhāng zhào piàn pāi de bù hǎo kàn? méi guān xi, zhǔ yào kàn qì zhì.
This photo isn’t flattering? Never mind, it’s all about presence.
我今天没化妆，主要看气质。
wǒ jīn tiān méi huà zhuāng, zhǔ yào kàn qì zhì.
No makeup today. It’s all about presence.

Where it came from

In late 2015, the singer Cyndi Wang (王心凌) posted a promotional photo on Weibo in which she eats a hamburger. Commenters made fun of the photo.

Sources disagree on who said 主要看气质 first. A Hangzhou news report says a user replied with it. The World of Chinese and a gaming site say she did.

Weibo users then posted their own photos with the line, and 咬文嚼字 put it on its list of the words of 2015.

The original. A promotional photo: the singer takes a bite of a hamburger. Hangzhou News told the story in its report on the 2015 list. Hangzhou News (in Chinese)