The word **空壳** (kōngké) is a modern Chinese compound formed through straightforward semantic combination: the first character **空** means "empty," and the second character **壳** means "shell" or "hull." Together, they create a literal meaning of "empty shell," which is then used metaphorically to describe entities—such as companies, institutions, or even relationships—that retain an outward structure or legal form but lack substantial operations, assets, or core value on the inside. This formation follows the common Chinese morphological pattern of modifier (空) + head noun (壳) to produce a new, vividly figurative noun.