If you maybe by any chance remember Episode 2, I was brutally honest in saying that in modern China, an ugly Ogre , even with the purest heart, would never be able to marry BAI FU MEI –ish ( Chinese ideal of a woman) princess, because BAI FU MEI is supposed to be reserved strictly for the GAO FU SHUAI – the ultimately privileged male with the full package.

Shrek, with his ‘I don’t give a flying f..k about all the whole wealth in the world’ attitude would represent the complete opposite category of people in contemporary Chinese culture – those, who in 2012, gained the name ‘diao si’屌丝.And since I assume that all the readers here are 18+,  then I will tell you the exact meaning – ‘diao’ means ‘penis’ and ‘si’stands for ‘thread’, but for polite dinner conversation, ‘loser’ would be enough. HOWEVER! Diao si is not a totally negative expression and to understand why, focus a bit here, please!

 At the very beginning, when the term ‘diao si’ was coined, it referred to that group of YOUNG people who proudly chose NOT to chase big money and prestigious careers, and would instead revel in doing nothing but playing online games day and night. If you haven’t heard yet, they even have their own ‘theme song’ created by netizens, that goes’ Single boy, single boy, single all the way, online game, masturbate, let us all be gay’….( I really appreciate working with Chinese teenagers).

Since 2012, though, this expression has evolved a bit due to economic changes in China. As you already know, some people got extremely lucky when 中国opened itself to the rest of the world, turning into signature, lovely tu haos, who eventually became ‘fruitful’ and multiplied, thus gracing us with the second generation of wealthy youth called fu er dai. The less lucky ones have been struggling with ever rising prices of property and low salaries, so naturally, their children didn’t grow up wearing D&G flip flops around the house .And guess what, they are not ashamed of it! They are proud of calling themselves ‘diao si’ - because whatever they have ,they achieved it through hard work AND, most importantly - learned to appreciate small things in life.

So next time you find yourself on the subway, facing a row of Chinese guys playing online games on their precious mobile devices, try stopping yourself from rolling your eyes and, instead, just be happy for them. They are simply, blissfully enjoying this seemingly unimportant activity and dealing with the fact that they could never take a Gucci schoolbag for granted…