Feichai \fèi chái \ 废柴 n. People of low social status or low-paid employment who dream of improving their lives and work hard to better their circumstances.
A: Look at those young salesmen working for four kuai an hour. Why are they so happy?
B: They are feichai but they are happy because they have goals to chase.
A: Yes, but how many of them can actually make it in the world?
B: It’s about the journey, not the destination.
The Chinese language loves analogies. One of its favorites is to liken people to trees, because trees are to construction what people are to societies. People who grow up to become valuable members of society and pillars of their communities are called cai — strong timber that can hold up great houses. Conversely, a person who has no skills and is useless to society is more like that wood you can’t do anything with. It can’t be used for furniture or building materials; it’s just firewood (chai).
Then there’s a level of wood even lower: the stuff that won’t even make good firewood. It’s too skinny and flimsy. That is feichai.
Literally meaning sub-par firewood — abandoned for its low value — the term feichai is an old Cantonese term. Just like the useless wood tossed outside the house, feichai (sometimes shortened to FC) refers to the unfortunate members of society who are cast away because of their low value. A typical feichai is someone from a working-class family who is poorly educated and cannot get a professional job, but who reads The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and does whatever it tells them so they can one day become ‘successful.’
Although the term emerged long before the Internet, it is making a comeback in the cyber vernacular. This may be because feichai are now able to easily find each other online. In forums and blog comment sections, feichai from all over China share their experiences and complaints, huddling for warmth and renewing each other's faith in ‘making it big one day.’
Not to be confused with diaosi (a much more cynical group of so-called losers), feichai never give up. While diaosi give in to their status, accepting and embracing their pathetic lives, feichai keep their dreams alive. Diaosi are happy playing online games for 18 hours a day but feichai get up at 6am every morning to work hard and strive to win employee of the month. They retain the belief that through hard work and sacrifice, they too can become useful pieces of wood one day. They choose optimism over cynicism, because they know that the secret to happiness is simply keeping the dream alive.
By day, Mia Li is a news reporter in Beijing; at night, she tries to turn that news into standup comedy.
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