官宣

What does 官宣 mean?

官宣 began as bureaucratic language for government or corporate announcements and then became personal and playful. A couple 官宣 when they go public with matching posts; a brand 官宣 a new ambassador; someone 官宣 a newly adopted cat. The word lends small personal news the mock gravity of an official statement, which is the joke.

Where does 官宣 come from?

On 16 October 2018, actors 赵丽颖 and 冯绍峰 each posted the same text, just 官宣, together with photos of their marriage certificates on Weibo. The posts dominated Chinese social media for days and the word exploded into captions everywhere. That December, 国家语言资源监测与研究中心 put 官宣 on its annual top-ten internet-word list.

How to use 官宣

• 两人旅行回来直接官宣了，朋友圈秒变祝福现场。
  Liǎng rén lǚxíng huílái zhíjiē guānxuān le, péngyǒuquān miǎo biàn zhùfú xiànchǎng.
  The two came back from their trip and went straight to guanxuan; their feed turned into a wall of congratulations.
• 球队官宣新外援的那条微博，评论区已经吵翻了。
  Qiúduì guānxuān xīn wàiyuán de nà tiáo wēibó, pínglùnqū yǐjīng chǎo fān le.
  Under the post where the club officially signed its new foreign player, the comments were already at war.