鸡 jī: chicken 汤 tāng：soup

Unlike chicken soup for the soul, in mandarin, Jitang is useless encouragement/ useless comfort.

Jitang information and advice. It tells you what you want to hear in the moment, but doesn’t help solve any real problems.Jitangis bite-sized content that tells us all our problems will be solved and everything will be okay, even if we don’t do anything.

 

Chinese: 这些畅销书上都是鸡汤文学。

Pinyin: Zhèxiē chàngxiāo shū shàng dū shì jītāng wénxué.

English: These bestsellers are all about chicken soup literature.

 

Chinese: 我不爱听她的演讲，都是鸡汤，没有干货。

Pinyin: Wǒ bù ài tīng tā de yǎnjiǎng, dōu shì jītāng, méiyǒu gānhuò.

English: I don't like to listen to her talk. It's all chicken soup, no real stuff.