明学

What does 明学 mean?

明学 is the internet's mock-academic name for the management style Huang Xiaoming showed as the manager of a Chinese restaurant on TV: absolute, affectionate and impossible to argue with. The central scripture is 我不要你觉得，我要我觉得, I don't want what you think, I want what I think. Fans compiled his lines into lesson-style posts, and office workers began quoting them to parody their own bosses. Calling something 明学 is affectionate mockery of a person who steamrolls every discussion while sincerely believing they are helping.

Where does 明学 come from?

Huang joined as manager in the third season of the Hunan TV show 中餐厅, which premiered in July 2019. In August, clips of him overruling chef 林述巍 with commands like 听我的 (listen to me) spread across Weibo and Zhihu, and viewers started calling the genre 明学. In December the line 我不要你觉得，我要我觉得 made 《咬文嚼字》 magazine's annual top-ten list of Chinese buzzwords, next to 我太难/南了 and 柠檬精. The name follows an older fandom habit of filing a show's interpersonal drama under X学, X studies.

How to use 明学

• 老板开会又说“听我的”，同事在群里发了四个字：明学开课。
  Lǎobǎn kāihuì yòu shuō tīng wǒ de, tóngshì zài qún lǐ fā le sì gè zì: míngxué kāikè.
  The boss said “listen to me” in the meeting again, so a colleague posted in the group chat: Ming studies, first lesson.
• 少来明学那一套，我不要你觉得，我要我觉得。
  Shǎo lái míngxué nà yī tào, wǒ bù yào nǐ juéde, wǒ yào wǒ juéde.
  Cut the Ming-studies act. I don't want what you think; I want what I think.