Meaning:

“杠” is short for “抬杠,” which means to “bicker,” and “精” refers to those who are especially good at doing something unappealing, as in the Chinese term “戏精” (drama queen). Therefore, this term, coined by Chinese netizens late last year, refers to those addicted to bickering. Such a person is always arguing with other people, not for the sake of expressing a different idea, but to demonstrate their “being smarter than and superior” to other people.

Example:

A: 我昨天说《头号玩家》很好看，小丽立刻反驳我说这部电影虽然忠于小说原作，但没有太多创意。

Wǒ zuótiān shuō 《tóuhào wánjiā 》hěn hǎokàn，xiǎolì lìkè fǎnbó wǒ shuō zhèbù diànyǐng suīrán zhōngyú xiǎoshuō yuánzuò，dàn méiyǒu tàiduō chuàngyì。

Yesterday when I said “Ready Player One” was very intriguing, Xiao Li immediately said the movie, faithfully based on the original novel, did not provide anything new.

B: 我猜她根本没去看。她就是个杠精，你别理她。

Wǒ cāi tā gēnběn méi qù kàn。Tā jiù shì gè gàngjīng，nǐ bié lǐ tā。

I guess she hasn’t watched the movie at all. Don’t take her words seriously, because she often argues for the sake of arguing.