Jianjun's Blog

Here are some of the popular Chinese words used among Internet users in China. I sort them according to my preference and their likelihood to become part of the everyday vocabulary

1. 河蟹 – literally means a ‘river crab’. A pun of the Chinese word 和谐 (harmony), which came from the call to ‘build a socialist harmonious society’ by political leaders.

In the beginning, 和谐 (harmony) was used, but later people opted to use ‘river-crab’ instead. The word is used as a verb to mean block, shut down or crack down, etc. depending on the object. For example, when a web site is blocked or shut down, we can say the web site is 被河蟹了 (river-crabbed/harmonized). Yeah, to make things harmonious, we have to get rid of those bad things indeed.

2. 粉丝 – literally means ‘starch noodle’, which came from the Chinese transliteration of ‘fans’. Used as a noun, it means an admirer or fan of somebody, famous or not. For example, X is Zhang Ziyi’s 粉丝.

3. 基民 – 基 is short for 基金 (mutual fund), 民 means people. This new word came into use when the bull market in 2006 and 2007 caused a sensation among the Chinese people and so many families put all their savings into the stock market or mutual funds. They have created a special kind of people – mutual fund people or 基民.

4. 脱女 – 脱 is short for 脱衣 (to undress), while 女 means a woman. During 2007, movie Lust, Caution entered the Chinese market and people began talking about those actresses who became famous overnight for taking off their clothes. Every such an actress is of course a 脱女. The word has a derogatory meaning.

New words appear every year. Most of them have a very short life. But I believe these words will stay in our vocabulary for a long time. If you know more popular Chinese words as such, please contact me or leave a message. I’d be glad to add them to this list. Thanks for today’s reading.

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