给力

What does 给力 mean?

Ask anyone on the Chinese internet in 2010 to rate something and 给力 was the whole scale: a 给力 trailer, a hole-in-the-wall noodle shop that turned out 给力, a rainy Monday that was just 不给力. It works as adjective and verb at once, packing ideas like full of energy or worth the trouble into two syllables. The word crossed from forums to newsstands that November, when 人民日报 put it in a front-page headline about Jiangsu and cultural investment, a moment still cited as the day net slang got stamped official. Officials then spent years trying, with mixed results, to be 给力 back.

Where does 给力 come from?

The break came in 2010 with CUCN201, a student dubbing crew from 中国传媒大学南广学院 whose comedy dub of the anime 《搞笑漫画日和》 ended scenes with the line 不给力啊，老湿 and racked up millions of plays on AcFun. Forums picked 给力 up within weeks. The final push was the 人民日报 front-page headline of 10 November 2010, 江苏给力“文化强省”, which turned a forum in-joke into vocabulary the whole country recognized on sight.

How to use 给力

• 你这波分析很给力，数据都摆出来了。
  Nǐ zhè bō fēnxī hěn gěilì, shùjù dōu bǎi chūlái le.
  Now that was a 给力 breakdown, numbers out and everything.
• 说好的雨，结果三十八度，这天气太不给力了。
  Shuōhǎo de yǔ, jiéguǒ sānshíbā dù, zhè tiānqì tài bù gěilì le.
  Forecast promised rain, we got 38 degrees. This weather is seriously 不给力.