Tag: chinese buzzwords

促狭(cō kē) (Shanghainese phrase)
Tricky, mean, sinister, vicious, hard to deal with
Many say this is another pidgin English term widely used by Shanghai locals. This term, 促狭(co ke), sounds very similar to the English word "trick" and shares some meanings of the word "tricky."
The Shanghainese phrase is now almost always used with a derogatory connotation. It may be used to describe a person who is mean and tricky. It may also be used to depict a move made by your opponent which makes it very difficult for you to respond or counteract, such as in play of chess. So, you may say he or she has made a 促狭(co ke) move.
When 促狭(co ke) is used to describe remarks and texts, it means they are malicious or have a double meaning.
However, occasionally, the phrase can be used among close friends in a playful and lighthearted manner. For instance, if your friend pulls your leg in a mischievous manner, you may say: "You are so 促狭."

腻心(nǐ xīn)(Shanghainese phrase)
Dirty, filthy, nauseating, disgusting, revolting
When a native Shanghainese sees something thatís filthy or disgusting, he would call it 腻心(ni xin). The first character in the Shanghai dialectic phrase means literally "oily," "icky" or "fed up." The second character means the "heart." So, if you feel that something is "icky" or "fed up" in your heart, it must be disgusting in one way or the other.
However, this phrase may also be used to describe a person if he or she is wearing very dirty clothes or clothes of disgusting taste, or acting in an unpleasant and revolting manner. In such cases, one may say, "He's such a 腻心person."

3Q战争(sān Q zhàn zhēng)
360-QQ Battle
The term refers to a battle over alleged unfair business practices between Tencent, operator of the popular instant-messaging software QQ, and Qihoo 360, China's biggest antivirus service provider. The battle escalated as Tencent stopped service to QQ users whose computers were detected to have installed Qihoo 360's software. It ended following mediation by China's government.

豆腐渣婚姻(dòu fu zhā hūn yīn)
jerry-built marriage
Some people have described the marriage of a rising number of young couples born in the 1980s as a building constructed with poor materials: hastily made and readily collapsible, on the grounds that these young couples meet by speed dating, get a hurried marriage and then break up shortly after.

恐归族 （kǒng guī zú）
home-going phobia clan
The term refers to people who plan to return home for the annual family reunion during the Spring Festival but are put off by the high travel costs and crowded transportation. Most of these people are migrant workers, who have to stay in the area where they work to spend the festival holidays as train tickets are sold out and they can’t afford planes.

火锅婚姻(huǒ guō hūn yīn)
hotpot marriage
Chinese netizens have compared marriage to the hotpot, where the romantic love before marriage represents the base of the broth and assorted difficulties faced in everyday life are the seasonings. It turns out that some couples make perfect hotpot, while others spoil it.

电视棒(diàn shì bàng)
TV USB drive
USB drives believed to be capable of picking up overseas TV channels once inserted into a computer with Internet access have been hawked illegally at some electronics markets in China, which bans unauthorized viewing of foreign channels.

萝卜招聘(luó bo zhāo pìn)
hand-picked employment
Some local governments in China are reported to have held job fairs that are apparently open to everyone but in fact vacancies have been reserved for the offspring of local heavyweights. The expression literally means “radish employment,” as a Chinese saying goes that each radish fits a single hole, meaning exclusiveness.

隔代结婚（ge2 dai4 jie2 hun1）
intergenerational marriage
The term refers to the marriage of two people with a distinct generation/age gap between them. It spread widely online after an official suggested that women born in the 1980s should marry men born in the 1960s or 1950s, who are older but have accumulated strong economic basis for a family life, during the annual two sessions — Chinese People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. The official said young people frustrated by high housing prices and unable to find a spouse their own age could consider marrying those of an older generation.

森林碳汇（sēn lín tàn huì）
forest carbon sinks
The term refers to a kind of economical environmental protection method of building more forests to accumulate carbon-containing chemical compounds for an indefinite period. The approach gained popularity after it was mentioned by some during the annual two sessions.
 

宅内族(zhái nèi zú)
Indoors-keepers
Home geeks with positive attitudes. They advocate a thrifty, do-it-yourself lifestyle due to the economic downturn or limited means, such as cooking and doing the laundry by oneself, or exercising at home if possible.

午饭恐惧症(wǔ fàn kǒng jù zhèng)
lunch phobia
During lunch hour, "what to eat and who to eat with" can be a headache for office workers who work at a company without canteen facilities. Some are afraid of being isolated from colleagues at the dining table due to a lack of shared topics or they are just not good at inter-personal communication skills. In fact, lunch phobia is a manifestation of social phobia.

裸辞(luǒ cí)
naked resignation
This refers to people who are resolved to quit their current job even before finding the next one. It is attributed to a massive workload or lacking in happiness at work. The word is now popular among office workers and the term has spread widely on the Internet.

周三症候群(zhōu sān zhèng hòu qún)
Wednesday syndrome
Wednesday, the midweek point, is often referred to as "hump day" because of its position as the middle day of the work week. If the work week were a hill, then Wednesday would be the crest. It is all downhill from there. People feel dismayed at the very day because of the just-passed weekend and the next faraway weekend so they end up being in the middle of nowhere. Besides, employees are prone to being overwhelmed with worry and anxiety on Wednesday because of all the information and messages they receive.

微波炉思维(wēi bō lú sī wéi)
Microwave mentality
Microwaves help people heat food quickly, but this magic helper in the kitchen has led to the disappearance of patience in modern society. People with a microwave mentality can't even wait for fast food to be delivered. For people who think this way, things that can't be done in minutes are simply not worth doing.