辣眼睛

What does 辣眼睛 mean?

Three characters, one wince. 辣眼睛 is what you type when an image or a video is so ugly, so awkward, or so bodily that looking at it feels like punishment: a neon outfit, a cringe dance cover, a food combo nobody asked for. It sits between horror and laughter, which is why it is often followed by a laughing-crying emoji. You do not even need to have seen the offending thing; a friend's description is enough to make you answer 辣眼睛 in advance. Once it lands in the group chat, everyone knows the sender has just suffered and wants company for the pain.

Where does 辣眼睛 come from?

辣 carries a second edge in colloquial Mandarin: not just spicy but stinging, so 辣眼睛 means roughly this hurts to look at. The line built up through 2015 and 2016 as livestream fails, terrible outfits and cursed food photos kept piling up, and by the end of 2016 it had become the standard reaction to visual disasters. On 2016-12-21 the Ministry of Education's language monitoring center released its 汉语盘点2016 roundup, and 辣眼睛 stood on the top-ten internet slang list. What keeps it handy is its range: it covers hideous and ridiculous at once.

How to use 辣眼睛

• 他发来一张荧光绿的西装自拍，我回他：辣眼睛。
  Tā fā lái yī zhāng yíngguāng lǜ de xīzhuāng zìpài, wǒ huí tā: là yǎnjing.
  He sent a selfie in a fluorescent green suit. I replied: that stings my eyes.
• 公司年会的开场舞视频被传上群，大家看了一半就纷纷喊辣眼睛。
  Gōngsī niánhuì de kāichǎng wǔ shìpín bèi chuán shàng qún, dàjiā kàn le yībàn jiù fēnfēn hǎn là yǎnjing.
  The video of the company gala's opening dance made it into the group; half of it was enough to get everyone shouting about their eyes.