Meaning:
“生” means “raw,” and “图” means “picture.” A term often used by Chinese netizens, especially fans of celebrities, this word refers to photos of pop idols that have not been photoshopped. This saying may have found its origin in English, as the word “raw” has the meaning of “being in a natural condition, not processed or refined.” It’s interesting to note that a .raw file refers to an image generated by digital cameras such as Panasonic, Leica and Casio cameras, which contains uncompressed, raw image data that can be adjusted for exposure and white balance using software that supports that format. Previously, we’ve talked about the term “生肉,” which literally means “raw meat” but actually refers to online resources of animation, movie or TV series in foreign languages without Chinese subtitles.
Example:
A: 你在看什么？
Nǐ zài kàn shénme？
What are you watching?
B: 有粉丝拍到刘亦菲的生图，她真漂亮，生图也这么能打。
Yǒu fěnsī pāidào liúyìfēi de shēngtú，tā zhēn piàoliang，shēngtú yě zhème néngdǎ。
A fan posted an unphotoshopped picture of Liu Yifei. She looks stunning even in this unphotoshopped picture.