China's Top Slang

[Randy W]

See also Chinese slang words

I'm not sure if these are of any interest, but if you hear anyone using any of them, you can say you heard it here!

from the Sixth Tone

Colorful Carp and Cheesy Pickup Lines: China’s Top Slang of 2018

The National Language Monitoring and Research Center has released its annual list of the memes that mattered in 2018.

 

 

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The interconnectedness of Chinese characters means people are constantly creating new words by piecing together two or more characters whose meanings can be compounded. Dialects, news events, songs, and online subcultures are all prime sources of new linguistic creations, which take shape and evolve as they’re disseminated over WeChat, Weibo, and other popular social platforms.

. . .

1. Koi
锦鲤 (jǐnlǐ)

2. Troll queen

杠精 (gàngjīng)

3. Skr

At a press conference in July, Wu repeatedly praised the contestants’ strong performances with the onomatopoeic utterance “skr,” without actually explaining what it meant. Despite some initial confusion, netizens had soon embraced the word and were peppering it willy-nilly into their own chats, confusing their friends with exclamations like “You skr idiot” or “That’s so frea-skr-king annoying.”

4. Buddha-like

佛系 (fóxì)

5. “From what I see in your eyes”

确认过眼神 (quèrèn guò yǎnshén)

6. Official Announcement

官宣 (guānxuān)

7. Center stage
C位 (C wèi)

8. Cheesy pickup lines

土味情话 (tǔwèi qínghuà)

9. Being cheeky

皮一下 (pí yīxià)

10. Burn my calories

燃烧我的卡路里 (ránshāo wǒde kǎlùlǐ)

 

 

Edited March 12, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

honorable mention and the CCP's Word of the Year go to . . .

 

from the LA Times

 

Dirt-poor and ugly — the proud new mantra of those left behind in the new China

Chinese netizens created a composite character from the characters for “poor,” “ugly,” and “dirt” that went viral on the social media platform Weibo. The first image shows the composite character. The second image shows three definitions for it.(Weibo)

 

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The three components mean poor, ugly and dirt, though the dirt character is also used colloquially as outdated, unfashionable or tacky.

 

Put them together and — according to one highly shared post — you get an adjective with three possible definitions: 1. so poor you’re eating dirt ; 2. not only ugly, but also so poor you eat dirt; 3. poor, ugly and dirt-tacky.

 

Young netizens who feel left behind in China’s new economy have claimed the character as an ironically proud expression of loser-hood.

 

. . .

 

Qiou began appearing on Chinese social media a few days after the Commercial Press publishing house announced the finalists for China’s 2018 word of the year.

 

The contest began in 2003 and is run by the Communist Party’s newspaper, People’s Daily, and several other institutions approved by the government.

 

. . .

 

The winner, announced Thursday, was fen, or “striving.”

 

“Fen is for the people’s brave striving toward a beautiful life, even more for the Communist Party’s selfless striving toward lofty ideals and beliefs, for difficult striving and courageous, forward striving toward realizing the Chinese people’s great China Dream of revival,” the Commercial Press announcement said. “… In the magnificent picture of the new era, striving itself is a form of happiness.”

 

Qiou never even had a chance.

 

 

Edited February 2, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

. . . and an update from GoldThread



5 more Chinese internet slang phrases you should know, illustrated
Frankie HuangSEP 11, 2019

 

 

 

Open up your brain hole

Consider it the Chinese equivalent of “thinking outside the box.”

[Greg.D.]

I can see banners appearing on a wall near you: "Open up your brain hole and shut your pie hole"

[Allon]

Well, depending on where your brain is......

[Randy W]

from the Sixth Tone

 

Nymphs With Fruit and Women Without: China’s Top Memes of 2019

A language research institute under the Ministry of Education has unveiled its most recent list of the top words and phrases from the Chinese internet.

 

 

 

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Lemon Nymph (柠檬精)

 

The humble lemon has insinuated itself into some curious turns of phrase. In the United States, you might be told to go suck one; in the United Kingdom, you might be told you are one.

 

This year in China, meanwhile, lemons became a way of expressing that one is “sour” with jealousy at someone else’s looks, possessions, talent, or even love life.

 

 

Rainy Girl Without Melons (雨女无瓜)

 

In English, referring to a fruitless, umbrella-less girl might draw blank stares at a dinner party. But in China, the phrase can sound something like “It ain’t got nothing to do with you” when spoken in a comically exaggerated countryside accent.

 

 

Edited February 7, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

 

Learn the 5 Popular Chinese Slang 2020

203 views

•Dec 11, 2020

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Are you learning Chinese? Do you want to learn the hip Chinese words popular on the internet in 2020? Learning some popular Chinese slang words should make your Chinese more native and trendy. Communication in China for the non-Chinese (particularly "Westerners"): https://bit.ly/2Jy8Y8i 

 

[Randy W]

from the Sixth Tone

https://www.facebook.com/sixthtone/posts/2875725879412920:0/

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#Buzzword: “Versailles literature” puts a fresh spin on flaunting wealth — something China’s rising middle class is becoming increasingly adept at.

Related read: http://ow.ly/

 

China’s Influencer Generation Has Discovered the Humblebrag
The new buzzword “Versailles literature” puts a fresh spin on flaunting wealth — something China’s rising middle class is becoming increasingly adept at.

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It stems from the Japanese manga series “The Rose of Versailles,” about the lavish lifestyle of Marie Antoinette, and now refers to anyone with a haughty, “let them eat cake” air about them. The term went viral recently thanks to social media posts by a blogger with the Weibo handle Meng Qiqi 77. Known for sharing regular updates of her charmed life and romantic anecdotes involving her hunky husband, Meng Qiqi 77 flexed like a Venice Beach bodybuilder.

In a now-deleted post from Nov. 7 , Meng Qiqi 77 claimed that she had interviewed a 27-year-old wonder woman — with a college degree, impressive cooking skills, and fluency in both English and French — to be a live-in nanny for her son. The woman’s most valuable quality, however, was that “she didn’t stare at my husband like the other young nannies,” Meng Qiqi 77 said.

In another post, she complained about the sales associates at SKP, a luxury shopping complex in Beijing, for supposedly judging potential buyers with a single glance at their shoes. As a result, Meng Qiqi 77’s thoughtful husband would always stoop and wipe her shoes with a moist towelette. “He was afraid that I would be looked down on,” she explained.

 

 

Edited February 9, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/1570821646570023/posts/2891410994511075/?substory_index=0

跌妈不认 or Diē mā bù rèn

("Mom doesn't recognize it" by Google translate)

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#Buzzword: This self-mocking term used among Chinese investors stems from the description of someone who has lost so much money on investment funds and securities that even their own mother can’t recognize them anymore.

[Randy W]

Unable to spend much time with their parents, China’s busy millennials are fulfilling their filial duties by buying them gifts online. The phrase “online shopping filial piety” started trending on Chinese social media this Mother’s Day.

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/1570821646570023/posts/2947599262225581/?substory_index=0

[Randy W]

Young Chinese have coined another term to reflect their growing disillusionment with the country’s grueling work culture. Rather than trying to keep up with society’s expectations, many are resolving to simply “lie down.”

躺平　Tǎng píng　tang ping

Read more: http://ow.ly/LbGA50EWyDd

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/1570821646570023/posts/2959405071045000/?substory_index=0

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The new lifestyle buzzword, tang ping, stems from a now-deleted post on forum site Tieba. Unlike similar, previous terms to have had their time in the spotlight in recent years, tang ping is an action rather than a feeling — resolving to just scrape by, exerting the bare minimum effort at an unfulfilling job, as opposed to the futility of raging against the capitalist machine.

The author of the Tieba post described how he had been unemployed for the past two years yet did not see this as problematic. Instead of accepting and pursuing society’s ideas of success, he decided to just lie down.

 

 

[Randy W]

The popular online lexicons of 2021 included viral phrases referring to dispirited lifestyles, expressions describing overwhelming emotions, references to sexist language, and more.
Here, Sixth Tone selects the top 10 buzzwords of 2021:

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/sixthtone/posts/3122626901389482

The Best Chinese Internet Slang, 2021 Edition
A list of online buzzwords that lived a life of their own on online platforms this year.

 

 

[Randy W]

Grace and Shuo playing dueling Mainland and Taiwanese slang - try to keep up.

Chinese Internet Slang Challenge | ft.@ShuoshuoChinese说说中文

 

[Randy W]

It’s the middle of another 12-hour work day, and you don't have break time. If you take out your phone or load up a news site, your boss will be there in minutes. What do you do about it? If you're a young Chinese office worker, it’s time to touch fish (摸鱼 mō yú). You could hide in the bathroom and watch short videos, or copy-paste a novel into Microsoft Word to look busy while you read.

Check out more Daily Tones: http://ow.ly/Rkje50Iiee1

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/sixthtone/photos/a.1604152706570250/3178834479102057

[Randy W]

Shanghai implements what it calls a “grid screening” strategy — closing residential compounds one by one and ordering their residents to undergo at least two nucleic acid tests — residents who haven’t been locked down and tested yet joke that they’ve made it to “the final circle.” 

Related read: http://ow.ly/lWwp50InOY0

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/sixthtone/photos/a.1604152706570250/3184219801896858