生肉 & 熟肉 (Shengrou & Shurou): Raw vs Subbed Videos 生肉 · 熟肉

Two food words you will see constantly when hunting for videos: 生肉 (shēng ròu, "raw meat") is a video with no subtitles — usually because it's in a foreign language. 熟肉 (shú ròu, "cooked meat") is that same video once subtitles have been added, by fans or officially. The metaphor: raw needs work before you can eat it.

Why an international viewer should care

These words are the community's own filter for "can I watch this without knowing the language." Searching a foreign creator's name plus 熟肉 is how Chinese viewers find subtitled versions — and the reverse trick works for you: when a Chinese video looks interesting but the title says 生肉, you know what you're in for. English-language content uploaded to Bilibili is typically 生肉 until a fan or the creator adds Chinese subtitles, and watching the 熟肉 version appear over a few hours is a small community ritual in itself.

Related customs

• Subtitling in real time via danmaku is done by the beloved wild subtitle fairies — thank them, don't report them.
• The broader act of transforming someone else's video is erchuang (fan creation); subtitles sit inside that tradition, with credit norms of their own.
• For officially subtitled content, check our verified video index, where caption observations are recorded per video.

See it in context

• The Watch Twice method — how to handle a 生肉 video you can't resist
• Can you use Bilibili in English? — the full language-options picture