活人感
huó rén gǎnlit. “living-person feeling”
What it means
活人感 (huó rén gǎn) is the quality of feeling real, imperfect, and alive online — the opposite of the polished, scripted 'perfect person' persona. It's what Chinese social media users now crave from creators and brands alike.
In real conversation
这个博主拍视频从不加滤镜，说话还会卡壳，特别有活人感。
Praising an authentic creator.
现在品牌都开始装活了，雪王跳舞大家就爱看，因为很有活人感。
Brands chasing authenticity.
The deeper story
China's 2025 list of top internet catchphrases, published by the linguists' magazine 咬文嚼字 (Yaowen Jiaozi), included 活人感 — a word for something the internet suddenly can't get enough of: real, unpolished humanness.
What it means
活人感 literally means "the feeling of a living person." On social media it describes content — or a person — that feels genuinely alive: the imperfect selfie, the messy background, the unfiltered rant, the creator who flubs a word and keeps going. It's the antidote to 精装 (heavily curated) personas and 完美人设 (perfect image), the carefully constructed online selves that once ruled Chinese social media.
Why it matters now
Two forces pushed 活人感 mainstream. First, burnout with polished content: after years of aspirational, heavily-produced posts, audiences started trusting "a real person" over a perfect one. Second, the AI wave: as AI-generated content and robotic marketing messages spread, genuinely human quirks became a premium. Chinese commentators put it simply — when "machine feeling" (人机感) is everywhere, 活人感 becomes precious. The English word people reach for: authenticity.
How to use it
Related: 绝绝子.
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