凉凉

What does 凉凉 mean?

凉凉 is what you hum when the situation is beyond saving: a doomed team push, a phone about to be confiscated, a losing hand in any game. The set phrase 一首凉凉送给你 (“a Liang Liang for you”) treats bad news as a farewell song, and it spread through game chats and streams especially around titles like 王者荣耀. The tone sits between gloating and sympathy, and the line often goes to yourself as well; the older slang 狗带, “go die”, carries similar fatalism with less melody.

Where does 凉凉 come from?

The word comes from 《凉凉》, the closing song of the 2017 costume drama 《三生三世十里桃花》, performed by 杨宗纬 and 张碧晨. 凉 on its own already meant “finished” in colloquial Chinese (凉了, “it's cooled”), and the song gave the sentiment a two-syllable, singable form. During 2017 the phrase 一首凉凉送给XX became a stock line in game chats and comment sections, used both to bury rivals and to announce one's own downfall; the drama began airing in January 2017, and the meme rode its soundtrack through the year.

How to use 凉凉

• 排位赛才开局，队友就送了三个人头，弹幕刷起来：一首凉凉送给你们。
  Páiwèi sài cái kāijú, duìyǒu jiù sòng le sān gè réntou, dànmù shuā qǐlái: yī shǒu liáng liáng sòng gěi nǐmen.
  Ranked match barely underway and a teammate fed three kills; the chat lit up: here's a Liang Liang for you all.
• 成绩出来那天看到挂了两科，这下凉凉了。
  Chéngjì chūlái nà tiān kàn dào guà le liǎng kē, zhè xià liáng liáng le.
  Results day: two failed courses. That's me finished.