What does WaterMelon Eater mean in Chinese?

Nowadays in China, you can hear people say “吃瓜群众” very often in daily conversations, especially among young people. As in this sentence:

wǒ zhǐ shì yí ɡè bù mínɡ zhēn xiànɡ de chī ɡuā qún zhònɡ.

我只是一个不明真相的吃瓜群众。

I am just the one who don’t know anything about the facts.

The Internet buzz word 吃瓜群众（chī ɡuā qún zhònɡ） is on top of list of must-learn words in our mandarin class online. Literally, it means “people eating watermelon”. 瓜 is a word for “melon”. In this phrase, it refers to watermelon specifically. However, the real meaning of吃瓜群众 has nothing to do with watermelon.

On various Internet forums where people post questions or discussions, a lot of people will engage in the discussion and start the casual chatting, some relevant to the point, some irrelevant. Some other people just choose to be onlookers instead of posting any comments or expressing an opinion. Since 2016, people started to call such kind of people吃瓜群众, as a way to show “I have nothing to do with the matter being discussed.” This phrase can be used to refer to onlookers who are unaware of the facts or those who don’t care what’s being discussed.

E.g.

měiɡè xīnwén dū huì yǒu hěnduō chīɡuāqúnzhònɡ wéiɡuān.

每个新闻都会有很多吃瓜群众围观。

There will be many onlookers behind every piece of news.

nǐ duì báibǎihé chūɡuǐ zěnmekàn？

A: 你对白百合出轨怎么看？

  What do you think of Bai Baihe having an extra-marital affair?

wǒ méi shénme kànfǎ. wǒ zhǐshì yíɡè chīɡuāqúnzhònɡ.

B: 我没什么看法，我只是一个吃瓜群众。

  Nothing. I am just a watermelon eater.

Where does the phrase originate from? Despite the many versions, one popular saying is that it came from a roadside interview. A reporter was asking an old man what was going on. The old man answered: “I don’t know anything. I was eating watermelon”.

Learn more buzz words: Learn Chinese Word 2016