# How to say “spill the tea” in Chinese

> The mildest way to say “spill the tea” in Chinese is 聊天 (liáo tiān), “to chat”. The strongest is 吃瓜群众 (chī guā qún zhòng), “the melon-eating crowd”. Here are all 5, ranked mild to strong, with pinyin and when to use each one.

Source: https://lanlanchinese.com/how-to-say/spill-the-tea-in-chinese (updated 2026-10-18)

1. **聊天** (liáo tiān) (strength 1/5): to chat. Innocent. For now.
   Heard in a real video: 你可以陪我聊聊天吗？ "I can't sleep. Can you keep me company?" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gqqj4VqvIoI&t=16s)
2. **八卦** (bā guà) (strength 2/5): gossip. Also the eight trigrams. Chinese gossip is ancient.
3. **吃瓜** (chī guā) (strength 3/5): to watch drama (lit. eat melon). The chinese popcorn emoji is a melon.
   Character by character: 吃 = eat, 瓜 = melon.
   Heard in a real video: 一旁快乐吃瓜的炫哥， "Xuan, happily enjoying the drama, saw how harmonious things were." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18tjNIA_Kl8&t=503s)
4. **大瓜** (dà guā) (strength 4/5): huge gossip (lit. big melon). The celebrity breakup everyone's talking about.
5. **吃瓜群众** (chī guā qún zhòng) (strength 5/5): the melon-eating crowd. Everyone watching, nobody helping.

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