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A year ago, if you'd heard the word "老登" (lǎo dēng) in China, you might reasonably have assumed it meant Joe Biden. "Old Deng" is his online nickname in China, which is an adaptation of this Chinese name (拜登 bài dēng).
These days it means something else entirely, and it was our Phrase of the Year for 2025.
We translate it as:
"Out-of-touch middle-aged man" (老登 lǎo dēng).
The characters make no sense on their own: "old" (老) plus "to climb" (登).
That's because it isn't standard Mandarin.
It comes from northeastern dialect, where "登" is a put-down for a man behaving like a creep, said with a rolling northern er: lǎo dē'er (老登儿).
In 2025 it took on a new meaning and became a descriptor for a successful older man who is arrogant, self-important, and totally out of touch.
That new meaning stuck, and now there are other phrases which sit along side it.
Like:
"middle-aged-man vibes" (登味),
"old-man cinema" (老登电影)
"younger out of touch man" (中登)
I mention this because "out of touch middle-aged man" (老登) came to mind when writing this week's RealTime Mandarin newsletter.
It's about an apparently successful CEO, a man in his 50's, who is clearly out of touch and definitely arrogant...
What a "laodeng"!
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