Category: Chinese Words&Phrases

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.

媒体依赖症(méi tǐ yī lài zhèng)
media-addiction syndrome
If you feel edgy, fidgety, distressed or lonely when left without access to your cellphone, Internet, TV and radio, then you are said to be suffering from the syndrome.

速食婚姻(sù shí hūn yīn)
instant marriage
The term refers to a very quick marriage between two people who only started their relationship a short time ago. This term comes from instant noodles, which are fast to make to satisfy one’s hunger but don’t contain much nutrition.

向日葵族(xiàng rì kuí zú)
sunflower clan
The term is used to refer to people who, just like a sunflower, always look on the bright side of life and are resilient to pressure as they easily forget about unhappiness. They are different to the “strawberry clan,” people who don’t handle pressure or setbacks well even though they look good.

男人月经期(nán rén yuè jīng qī)
manstruation
It is said that men experience psychological menstruation, which can be seen by a periodic bad temper, low mood and lack of interest in romance and sex.

微博保姆(wēi bó bǎo mǔ)
microblog operations administrator  
It is a nickname for someone who maintains a company’s microblog. The person tries to create topics to attract more followers while also explaining negative comments about the firm. The Chinese term literally translates as microblog housemaid.

笃定(dǔ  dìng)