韭菜
What Does 韭菜 Mean?
A metaphor for retail investors who are easily exploited by large traders. Emerging around 2017, the image is of leeks being harvested—retail investors are repeatedly 'cut' by institutional players in stocks and crypto.
Origin Story
The 韭菜 metaphor for retail investors emerged on Chinese stock trading forums around 2015-2017. The specific phrasing 割韭菜 (harvesting leeks) was popularized during the 2015 Chinese stock market crash, when millions of retail investors lost their savings while institutional investors appeared to profit. The metaphor gained renewed popularity during the cryptocurrency boom of 2017-2018 and was further amplified by the 2021 GameStop short squeeze, which Chinese media framed as '韭菜反击战' (the leeks strike back).
Cultural Context
韭菜 (Leek / Chive) is perhaps the most politically resonant financial metaphor in contemporary Chinese internet culture. The image is brutally simple: leeks are a plant that, once grown, gets cut down — and then grows back to be cut again. Applied to retail investors, the metaphor captures the cyclical exploitation that small investors experience in Chinese stock markets and cryptocurrency trading. Institutional players, company insiders, and market manipulators are the 'harvesters' who repeatedly 'cut' (割 gē) the韭菜. The genius of the metaphor is that it acknowledges the victim's complicity: leeks keep growing back. Despite repeated losses, retail investors return to the market, driven by the dream of striking it rich. This self-aware fatalism is characteristic of Chinese internet humor — acknowledging a bad situation while doing nothing to change it. The term has expanded beyond finance to describe any exploitative relationship where the powerful repeatedly extract value from the powerless, from workplace dynamics to consumer culture. The term originated and spread primarily on Weibo.
Similar Expressions in English
割韭菜 (gē jiǔ cài)散户 (sǎn hù)被套 (bèi tào)
How Is It Used?
Chinese Explanation (中文解释)
比喻容易被大户'割'的散户投资者，常用在股票和币圈讨论中。'割韭菜'则指大户收割散户。