During the 2022 Shanghai lockdown, internet users reimagined corporate buzzwords through the lens of daily life under quarantine, producing a flood of satirical one-liners.
Terms like “commitment” (as in committing to a group-buy), “sustainability” (reusing soup to cook another batch of noodles), “big day” (the delayed reopening of Disneyland — now set for June 30), “new scenario” (working from home), “landing point” (makeshift quarantine wards), and “decentralization” (I’ll be the group-buy leader this time) were given absurd yet strikingly real new meanings. These ironic reinterpretations became a distinct form of dark humor amid the chaos of lockdown.