\tI’ve often pondered about how many words really exist in Mandarin for “popular” and so I’ve done my research and come up with what seems to be a pretty definitive list. For the purposes of this post, there is a distinction made between “popular” (known by many people) and universal (“affecting everyone\/everything”), the latter of which is commonly translated as \u666e\u904d p\u01d4biàn or \u666e\u53ca p\u01d4jí. I also left out \u5927\u4f17\u7684 dàzhòng de and \u6c11\u95f4\u7684 mínji\u0101n de, which are ideally conceptualised as “used by the people”, a little different to the essential meaning of “popular” in my opinion, but worthy of mentioning nonetheless. And now, onto the list…<\/p>\n
\t1. \u6d41\u884c liúxíng<\/strong> – The generic word for “popular”. Can be used in almost any context when talking about things – \u6d41\u884c\u97f3\u4e50 (“popular music”), \u6d41\u884c\u8bbe\u8ba1 (“popular designs”), \u6d41\u884c\u6e38\u620f (“popular games”), etc. It can’t describe people though.<\/p>\n \t2. \u53d7\u6b22\u8fce shòu hu\u0101nyíng<\/strong> – Another common expression for “popular”, literally “received popularity”. The phrase \u500d\u53d7\u6b22\u8fce bèishòuhu\u0101nyíng – “enjoy great popularity” – is also common. Note that this word can refer to people, unlike \u6d41\u884c liúxíng.<\/p>\n \t3. \u8d70\u7ea2 z\u01d2uhóng<\/strong> – Literally, “walk [through] red”, this colloquial adjective commonly describes popular people, or “favourites” of superiors. Can also be abbreviated as just \u7ea2 hóng.<\/p>\n \t4. \u706b hu\u01d2 <\/strong>– Another popular and extremely flexible colloquialism for popular. Literally, “fire”. Here’s an example sentence: \u4ed6\u7684\u5546\u5e97\u6700\u8fd1\u5f88\u706b\u3002— His shop has been popular as of late.<\/p>\n \t5. \u65f6\u5174 shíx\u012bng <\/strong>– Yet another colloquial word for “popular”, commonly used in Northern China. An example of usage: \u73b0\u5728\u8fd9\u65e9\u5c31\u4e0d\u65f6\u5174\u4e86\u3002 — This has not been popular for a while.<\/p>\n \t6. \u5403\u9999 ch\u012bxi\u0101ng<\/strong> – This “popular” adjective most commonly collocates with professions and institutions, e.g. \u8fd9\u4e2a\u884c\u4e1a\u6bd4\u8f83\u5403\u9999\u3002— This profession is relatively popular.<\/p>\n \t7. \u901a\u4fd7 t\u014dngsú <\/strong>– Usually restricted as an attributive in such collocations as \u901a\u4fd7\u5c0f\u8bf4 t\u014dngsú xi\u01ceoshu\u014d (“popular fiction”) and \u901a\u4fd7\u6587\u5b66 t\u014dngsú wénxué (“popular literature”).<\/p>\n \t8. \u76db\u4f20 shèngchuán<\/strong> – Relatively formal, \u76db\u4f20 shèngchuán acts as a verb (“to make widely known”) and often collocates with certain media like articles, songs, etc, e.g. \u6700\u8fd1\u7f51\u4e0a\u76db\u4f20\u4e00\u9996\u6b4c… This is literally parsed as, “Recently the Internet has made a song widely popular” – in idiomatic English, “A song has recently gained popularity on the Internet.”<\/p>\n