浪浪山小妖怪

What does 浪浪山小妖怪 mean?

People call themselves a 浪浪山小妖怪 when they feel like a nameless cog: doing the grunt work, taking orders, and never getting credit. The most quoted line is 我想离开浪浪山 ("I want to leave Langlang Mountain"), which means wanting to quit a dead-end job or situation and try for something bigger. The tone is self-deprecating but warm, with a hint of quiet ambition rather than pure despair. It sits close to 牛马 and 打工人, but adds a storybook charm.

Where does 浪浪山小妖怪 come from?

It comes from 《小妖怪的夏天》 ("Nobody"), the first episode of the animated anthology 《中国奇谭》 ("Yao-Chinese Folktales"), released in January 2023. In it, a little pig demon slaves away for a demon king and announces that it wants to leave Langlang Mountain. The story was expanded into the 2025 summer feature film 《浪浪山小妖怪》, whose box-office success revived the meme among office workers; the term also appeared on the National Language Resources Monitoring and Research Center's 2025 buzzword list.

How to use 浪浪山小妖怪

• 每天加班，我就是浪浪山的小妖怪。
  Měitiān jiābān, wǒ jiù shì lànglàng shān de xiǎo yāoguài.
  Overtime every day — I'm basically a little demon of Langlang Mountain.
• 今年我一定要离开浪浪山！
  Jīnnián wǒ yídìng yào líkāi lànglàng shān!
  This year I'm definitely getting out of Langlang Mountain!