预制xx (Pre-fabricated ___)

预制 started as a food-industry term for pre-cooked, assembly-ready dishes. When China's restaurant chains were exposed for serving mostly reheated 预制菜, the word became a hot-button topic — then it escaped the kitchen entirely.

From the plate to everything else

The backlash against 预制菜 — pre-prepared restaurant meals — grew through 2025, and 预制 became the internet's shorthand for anything that feels standardized, pre-assembled, and short on soul. The pattern 预制xx (pre-made X) gets applied anywhere you sense the human touch has been replaced by an assembly line:

• 预制人生 (pre-fabricated life) — a life lived by script: study the "right" degree, get the "right" job, post the "right" life.
• 预制心情 (pre-made mood) — posting a "genuine" emotion that was clearly staged.
• 预制旅行 (pre-made trip) — a vacation whose every moment is pre-booked and Insta-ready.
• 预制感动 (pre-made emotion) — marketing-engineered tearjerkers.

The double edge

预制xx is both a complaint and a joke. People mock the assembly-line feeling of modern life while quietly admitting they participate — booking the packaged tour, buying the pre-made meal, posting the scripted photo. It's the 2025 way of saying what older slang called 形式主义 or 表演式生活: everything looks done, nothing feels real.

How to use it

Stick 预制 in front of a noun to accuse it of being pre-assembled and soulless. The tone is wry — half-complaint, half-self-aware joke.

Related: 内卷, 摆烂.