Yuan, Kuai, or Renminbi?

[Guest ExChinaExpat]

I have often heard the terms: yuan, kuai, and renminbi used interchangeably by many China expats. It can be a bit confusing as to which means what, and how they are used. This article does a pretty good job explaining usage:

 

 

 

Yuan or Renminbi: What’s the Right Word for China’s Currency?

By Matt Phillips

Bloomberg News

Despite the hubbub over the newfound flexibility announced by Chinese officials over the weekend, here at MarketBeat, we’re concerning ourselves with a somewhat more pedestrian question: Exactly what do you call the Chinese currency?: Yuan or Renminbi?

We’ve seen them used pretty much interchangeably, but were wondering exactly what the distinction is between using one or the other.

Is it a subtle parsing? A matter of slang? As per usually, we turned to the Journal’s in house bible for a bit of explanation. Unfortunately, we didn’t find much. “Use yuan to refer to the currency of China, though renminbi is also used by some,” it says.

So after a bit of research and some chats with knowledgeable inhouse forex folks and native speakers, as well as some outside the Journal, here’s the basics.

Renminbi — abbreviated RMB — is the formal term most often used by Chinese officialdom to refer to the currency. (It’s also nice to drop into conversations here and there though to impress the boss.) Literally, it means “People’s Currency.” But it’s a too stuffy for everyday use. “No one says RMB,” Cheng Li, a senior fellow at Brookings told MarketBeat.

It seems like there’s not a really good equivalent to renminbi in American English, maybe something like “legal U.S. tender.” Yuan is renminbi, just like the dollar is legal U.S. tender — but so are dimes, nickels and quarters.

The yuan is the actual unit. It’s pretty much the equivalent to “dollar.” It’s more likely to be used in everyday interactions. Further down the slang spectrum is “kuai,” which is sort of like saying “a buck,” here in the states.

For more on ins and outs of Chinese currencies check out this guide to “spending money in Beijing” put out by state media in conjunction with the 2008 olympics.

http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2010/06/21/yuan-or-renminbi-whats-the-right-word-for-chinas-currency/

[dnoblett]

Interesting, I always heard Yuan or Renminbi used when touring China.

[Randy W]

It's almost always (in my experience) kuai and mao - such as san kuai wu for ¥3.50, rounded up to the nearest mao (or jiao). Items sold by weight are usually sold by the jin (= ½ kg), and priced to the fen (1/100 yuan), but the total of all items is rounded up.

 

They seem to be doing away with coins again around here - hardly see 'em any more.

[newacct]

And in Cantonese, the slang for the yuan is 蚊 (Jyutping: man1, like English "mon" in "monday"), and the slang for dime is 毫 (Jyutping: hou4, like English "hoe" but lowest tone).