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I am trying to understand, what is the true meaning of 感到鸭力 translated to English as to feel the duck power

As I noticed, it is often used in memes along with images expressing that feeling. But only seeing the expression I cannot determine what it feels precisely. What is the duck power?

  • Is it a feeling of being relaxed?
  • Or is it a feeling of being depressed/loosing power?
  • Or maybe just being highly concentrated on something?
  • Is a comparison with a duck conotated negatively or positively in this phrase?

Example of usage:

Source: https://www.biaoqingbao8.com/detail/28436.html

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  • Please let us know if you are able to find its use in formal writing. On the internet, in order to draw attention, anything can happen. It is good to know for fun though.
    – r13
    Commented Aug 9, 2021 at 20:42
  • @r13 Asking this question I thought it may be some kind of Chinese idiom/phraseology. something like: "I was feeling like a boiled owl" or "It feels to me like a duck to water".
    – mpasko256
    Commented Aug 10, 2021 at 20:19
  • In the end, you got a good answer though :)
    – r13
    Commented Aug 10, 2021 at 20:26

4 Answers 4

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「感到『鴨力』」 (Mandarin Pinyin: Gǎn dào yālì) is pronounced exactly the same as 「感到『壓力』」 (to feel pressure), where 「壓力」 means pressure (both literally, as in mechanical pressure, and figuratively, as in psychological pressure).

The pun-meme derives from 「鴨」 (duck) and 「壓」 (pressure) being homophones, depicted by a duck pressing down on a depressed-looking cat.

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This is a 谐音梗 in Chinese network social media.

感到鸭力 = 感到压力 = feel pressure

鸭 = 压，同音字(homonym)

Memes created by the same or fililar pronouncing in Chinese network social media often called "谐音梗" .

In the example duck(or pressure) made kitty unhappy, so 感到鸭（压）力.

enter image description here

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In my memory, the homophonic pun of replacing "压" with "鸭" originated around 2011. The most notable example was "鸭梨山大" (Chinese white pear large as a mountain), "鸭梨" being homophonic to "压力", so it means "mountain-like pressure". But the whole phrase is also homophonic to "亚历山大" (the Chinese translation of Alexander the Great).

See: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%B4%A8%E6%A2%A8%E5%B1%B1%E5%A4%A7

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"感到鸭力" means feeling the pressure. In emoticons, we often put a little duck on top of their heads, and there will be a sad expression on their face. This means that people feel the pressure of the duck's weight on their heads. Enjoy!

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