义工

• Pinyin: yì gōng
• Hanzi breakdown: 义 = 羊 + 我 (sheep + I — acting from moral righteousness); 工 = carpenter's square pictograph (skilled labour)

Meaning

Volunteer; a person who donates their time and labour without pay to serve society or those in need.

Used interchangeably with 志愿者 in many contexts, though 义工 carries a slightly warmer, community-oriented tone. Common in social welfare, disaster relief, elderly care, and environmental campaigns. Organisations often recruit 义工 for weekend or holiday projects.

Examples

1. 她每周末都去社区养老院做义工，陪老人们聊天、读报，已坚持了将近五年。 Every weekend, she volunteers at a community nursing home, chatting with the seniors and reading the newspaper with them; she’s kept it up for nearly five years.
2. 这次地震发生后，来自全国各地的义工迅速集结，协助搜救人员转移安置受灾群众。 After the earthquake, volunteers from all over the country quickly gathered to help search-and-rescue teams evacuate and resettle disaster victims.
3. 学校鼓励学生在暑假期间参与义工服务，将社会实践纳入综合素质评价体系。 The school encourages students to do volunteer service during summer break, incorporating community engagement into its overall student evaluation system.

Usage Guide

Context: social welfare, community service, charity, education

Tone: positive

Do Say

• 市红十字会面向市民公开招募义工，负责在献血车旁协助登记、维持秩序，有意者可通过官方平台在线报名。(The city Red Cross is publicly recruiting volunteers from among residents to assist with registration and crowd management beside the blood donation vehicles; interested parties may register online via the official platform.)
• 这支由退休医生组成的义工队伍定期深入偏远山区，为当地居民提供免费体检和基础用药指导，每年服务人次逾两千。(This volunteer team composed of retired doctors regularly ventures into remote mountain areas to provide free physical examinations and basic medication guidance to local residents, serving more than two thousand people annually.)

Don't Say

• 他是一名义工工人 — 义工 already implies unpaid voluntary labour; 工人 is redundant; simply say 他是义工 or 他做义工

Origin & History

义 (righteousness/duty — 羊 sheep + 我 I; acting from moral duty) + 工 (work/labour — a pictograph of a carpenter's square, representing skilled work)

Cultural Context

Era: Modern

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal