A man of average everything — except self-esteem. Coined on a comedy stage in 2020; now the shorthand for a national argument about men, merit and modesty.
Rejected translations: mediocre king · confidence man
The word
普信男 (pǔ xìn nán): a compression of 普通却自信 — “ordinary, yet confident.” A man of average everything except self-esteem.
Where it came from
Comedian Yang Li said it on stage in 2020: “He is so ordinary, yet so confident.” The room laughed. The internet did not stop arguing about it for years.
Why it doesn’t translate
“Confidence man” is a false friend — that’s a con artist. “Mediocre king” romanticizes it. The word’s sting is in the gap it names: the distance between what a man has done and how he rates himself.
[AUTHOR TO WRITE: usage examples from real comment sections, with translations.]