神马都是浮云

What does 神马都是浮云 mean?

神马 does the work of 什么 with a wink, and 浮云 hails from a line in the Analects, where wealth gained unjustly is to one upright person so much drifting cloud. Put them together and the phrase waves away office gossip, a bad mark, vacation photos of an ex: none of it is solid, none of it stays. It peaked in 2010 in natural opposition to 给力, cheer versus shrug, and the two were quoted as a pair. Friends still sign off with it when a plan collapses: 神马都是浮云，睡觉.

Where does 神马都是浮云 come from?

The phrase spread through mid-2010 and detonated that October, during the 天涯社区 saga of 小月月, a thread read by millions. Underneath it, commenters kept drawing the same conclusion about the drama: none of it mattered, 神马都是浮云. By December it sat on every year-end list of internet words, often right next to 给力.

How to use 神马都是浮云

• 听说年终奖要打对折？神马都是浮云，先睡个好觉。
  Tīngshuō niánzhōngjiǎng yào dǎ duìzhé? Shénmǎ dōu shì fúyún, xiān shuì ge hǎo jiào.
  Bonus cut in half this year? It is all clouds. I am sleeping on it first.
• 失恋第三天，她把签名改成了神马都是浮云。
  Shīliàn dì sān tiān, tā bǎ qiānmíng gǎi chéng le shénmǎ dōu shì fúyún.
  Three days after the breakup, she changed her bio to: it is all floating clouds.