水货
grey import
It is also know as a parallel import, which is made available in the local “grey market” by retailers who order the trademark goods directly from overseas wholesales at a lower price and without going through official import channels. Most such imports are shipped to the local market by water, hence the Chinese term, shuihuo(water goods).

枪手
ghost test-taker, ghost writer
Gunman is the direct translation for this Chinese term, but it is now used metonymically to describe anyone who sits in examinations for others for a fee. The government has been trying very hard to stamp out ghost test-taking, which has become widespread around the country.

色友
shutterbug
Enthusiastic amateur photographers in China call themselves seyou or “colorful friends”. They claim they are a bunch of people who love anything that’s colorful. Don’t try to translate this Chinese term without a real understanding of it, because the first character in the term can also mean “lascivious” .

纸黄金 (zhi 3huang2jin1)
paper gold
A general term to describe gold contrasts, which do not necessarily involve the delivery of physical gold. The International Monetary Fund invented “paper gold” in 1971. The Bank of China Shanghai branch now sells paper gold 24 hours a day.

包机
charter flight
The flights are specially arranged for travelers. Both sides across the Taiwan Strait have designed six carriers to make 36 roundtrip charter flights for the upcoming Spring Festival, which falls on January 29.

八卦
gossip, gossipy
Originally the name of an eight-side diagram derived from the famous Chinese classic “1 Ching”(Book of Changes), it is now often used to describe gossip or gossipy people. Some believe this term first came into use in Hong Kong where the “ying-yang” diagram was frequently used to cover the crucial points of nude models on gossip or porn magazine covers.

friendlies
Friendlies is the official English name for the five mascots picked for the 2008 Olympics Games in Beijing, though each of the doll-like mascots has its own name, such as Beibei, Jingjing and Yingying. The selection marks the first time that more than three images will share Summer Olympic mascot duty.

脐带血
umbilical cord blood
Huang xinxia, a 28-year-old woman from Anhui Province, is now waiting to see if the umbilical cord blood from her second boy, who was born in Shanghai a week ago would help save her first son, who suffers from leukemia. Doctors at Shanghai No.1 People’s Hospital collected the umbilical cord blood, and hope there will be a better chance of a match of stem cells between two brothers.

大师杯网球赛
Tennis Masters Cup
It has become a major sport event in the city. World No.1 Roger Federer said:“For me, this is like a Grand Slam. I came here not knowing if I can play, and I went through all the therapy just to really show people also how much this event really means to me.”

劈腿
two-timing
This term is frequently used by young people to describe someone who’s not faithful to his/her spouse or lover. But a more popular Chinese saying, jiaota liangtiao chuan, portrays a two-minded person as riding on two boats simultaneously with each foot on one boat. The latter is often used in a broader sense.

缉毒犬
sniffer dog, drug detector dog
Local airports have employed some sniffer dogs not only to help detect drugs, but also to uncover any products that could be related t the spreading avian flu virus. It’s reported that the canine squad has been working very effectively.
光棍儿节
Singles’ Day
Every year at 11:11pm on November 11, fun-seeking male college students will have rowdy parties by screaming out their desire to find a girlfriend and use whatever is available to make big noises. The timing, consisting of eight Arabic number of 1, is deliberately selected to personify many single people. Can you envisage a Single Women’s Day?

非法集资
ponzi scheme
Ponzi scheme, named after its early 20th century inventor Carlo Ponzi, is a form of fraudulent investment scam. In a recent case, a local woman allegedly defrauded more than 50 people, many of them friends and co-workers, out of 7.69 million yuan (US$949,400) involving the sale of pre-paid mobile cards.

短信诈骗分子
SMS scammer
The Public Security Ministry recently disclosed a few shocking cases of criminals using cell-phone short message to cheat people out of money. Officials say now you can call police for help if you receive such fraudulent messages on your cell-phone.

连体婴儿 (lian2ti3 ying1’er2)
conjoined twin babies
Conjoined twins are rare, but it is even more rare that the parents of a pair of conjoined girls can’t be found. Doctors at Fudan University’s Children’s Hospital said last week that they could not plan an operation to separate the two sisters without the authorization of their parents.

八角茴香
star anise
Star anise is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine or flavoring, which is also known as eight-cornered fennel. Recently there is a buying spree for star anise in some parts of China as media reported that it is an important ingredient of Roche’s Tamiflu, a medicine believed to be able to prevent bird flu.

素质教育
all-round education
Many Chinese educators, parents and politicians have long been calling for a fundamental reform in the country’s education system in order to eradicate its numerous flaws rooted in traditional exam-oriented schooling. They say what the country needs is an all-round education system to help bring forth millions of young people with a well-balanced moral, intellectual and physical education, not just examination machines.

新新人类
new-new generation
This is a term for a “novel generation” of youngsters who have novel ideals, are always ready to try out new fashions and new lifestyle, do whatever they see appropriate and are willing to be responsible for their unconventional action.

数独
sudoku or number place
This is probably the most popular logic puzzle around the world today. The aim of the puzzle is to fill in each empty square of a grid of 81 cells so that the figures 1 to 9 appear just once in every row, column and individual 3*3 block. Though sudoku is a Japanese name, the puzzle’s true modern origin lies with a team of puzzle constructors in 1970’s New York. Check out the sudoku column on B-15 in Shanghai Daily.

无厘头
meaningless act
The phrase derives from “moulaitou” in Cantonese, which was first used to describe a trend in Hong Kong pop culture started by actor Stephen Chow. His brand of slapstick comedy features exaggerated body language, trash talk and black humor. Now any absurd, meaningless and anomalous approach to express one’s opinions or feelings can be described as “wulitou.”

泡菜
kimchi
A possible origin of kimchi or Korean spicy traditional pickled vegetables was in ancient China. Recently, however, China’s state food authorities have banned imports of kimchi from South Korea after finding parasite eggs in the imported side dish.

保质期
shelf life or best-before date
Shanghai health authorities have employed a team of volunteer food inspectors to check whether food or medicines are sold after the expiry dates or for other quality problems as part of nationwide efforts to ensure safe food and drugs.

80后
80’s generation
The word refers to those who were born in 1980s. They are considered to be a self-centered generation who care more about themselves compared with older generations. They are also more willing to try new things, heavily influenced by the Internet and more open to foreign cultures.

个人所得税起征点
threshold of personal taxable income
China’s top legislature recently issued the new threshold for taxable income, 1,600 yuan(US$198) a month, which will be effective from next year. It doubles the previous threshold which was unchanged for more than decade.

复原乳
reconstituted milk
The state standards administrative authority has recently told all dairy producers they must tell customers clearly whether the milk they sell is “reconstituted milk” or “pure fresh milk.” Earlier, press reports disclosed that many dairy producers sold the former under the name of the latter in order to cut costs.

交通拥挤费
congestion charge
The city is planning to introduce a congestion charging scheme similar to the one imposed in central London to help cut traffic jams during rush hours. If enacted, the scheme will charge drivers when they enter a certain downtown area during a given period of time.

保鲜膜
cling film
China’s health authority recently conducted a spot check on cling film wrapping after receiving reports that a chemical linked to cancer is in the widely used product.

禽流感
avian flu or bird flu
The World Health Organization warned earlier this month that the economic impact from a flu pandemic would be enormous and urged countries to prepare for a possible outbreak like the 1918 one that killed 50 million people.

老赖
deadbeat
The city recently sent 80 diehard defaulters to jail. They were all debtors who had the money but refused to pay court-ordered debts. Laolai is a derogatory term in Chinese.

“海龟”
“sea turtle”
People have come to use this term to refer to people who have returned to work on the mainland after completing their education overseas. “Sea turtle” in Chinese is pronounced the same as the abbreviated phrase “returning from overseas.”

“海带”
“seaweed”
The word, a follow-up to “sea turtle,” is used to refer to those Chinese youths who haven’t found a job in their home country after they study overseas. The Chinese character dai in the phrase sounds the same as another Chinese word meaning “wait.” as in waiting for a job.

韩流
Hallyu or Korean fever
Hallyu is a Korean word meaning the boom in Korean pop culture among Chinese, Japanese and Southeast Asians. It also sounds the same as the Chinese term “cold snap.”

另类
offbeat
This term has become popular as people tend to use it to describe anyone or anything that ranges from avant-garde to unconventional or weird.

充电
recharge
Borrowed from the common practice of recharging batteries, this expression is now often used figuratively to mean reeducation and vocational training.

红色旅游
Red Tour
Backed by local governments, many travel agencies around the country have been organizing tours to sites related to the Chinese revolution in the last century, hence the new phrase. The venue of the first meeting of the Communist Party of China in Shanghai near Xintiandi, has become a major Red Tour attraction.

中国宇航员
taikonaut
This is a hybrid word formed from the Chinese taikong, “space,” and Greek nautes, “sailor.” It distinguishes Chinese spacemen from the astronauts of the United States, cosmonauts of Russia and spationauts from French-speaking countires.

拼车
carpool
While carpooling is encouraged in many big cities around the world to tackle rush hour traffic jams and reduce pollution, some Shanghai city government departments recently drew criticism for banning the practice because it disrupted the taxi service market.

灌水
flood-blogging
When guanshui is used in the context of Internet, it does not mean “irrigation” as in its normal use. Some Web bloggers upload tons of nonsense or neither here nor there trivial in order to earn more online credits but only to be scorned by blog viewers for wasting their time and the server space.

第一桶金
the first bucket of gold
Tons of articles have been published in the press discussing how people make their first fortune and use it to invest in their business.

人性化服务
people-oriented service
The city’s service industry has been promoting a “people first” practice in order to provide more considerate and satisfactory services to clients.

郁闷
angry and frustrated
This term is a favorite among young people these days and they frequently use it whenever they feel “pissed off.”

漂书
bookcrossing
The practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise, has appeared in some districts in the city.

医托
hospital scalper, hospital stoolie
The city police crack down on scalpers selling registration numbers at major hospitals as well as touts who lure people from major hospitals to small, lesser-known and even unlicensed facilities.

啃老族
NEET
It stands for Not in Employment, Education or Training. It refers to some young people who do not work but live off their parents.
忽悠
sweet-talk, coax, wheedle
This term has become a fad in daily talks of a great number of people around the town.

哈日一族
Otaku
Translated from Japanese, an otaku is an overly obsessed fanboy or fangirl of Japanese animation and manga. Japanophile is a word sometimes used to describe an otaku.

秋老虎
Autumn Tiger
This is a spell of hot weather that usually appears in late summer or early autumn, when the daily high hovers around 35 degrees Celsius. It’s not quite the same as the Indian Summer in North America or the Old Wives’ Summer in central Europe.

吊带衫
halter top, spaghetti strap top
Some local men say it’s improper for women wearing halter tops or other skimpy dress to ride the crowded Metro.

海纳百川，追求卓越
keep an open mind, strive for excellence
Many have used this phrase to describe the city spirit of Shanghai. The first part, haina baichuan, literally means “the sea takes in hundreds of rivers,” which indicates the Shanghai people’s all-embracing attitude towards the outside world.

保持共产党员先进性
keep the Party in the vanguard
The Chinese Communist Party has launched an educational program to ensure its members retain good Party traditions and keep pace with the times in order to lead the nation to successfully build a well-off society.

自由行
self-guided tour
This has become an increasingly popular form of travel with urban residents in China, especially among the young people. Having hotel and transport arranged by travel agencies and the itinerary totally controlled in their own hands, the travelers can enjoy the convenience of a package tour and the freedom of backpacking travel.

跑龙套
walk-on
The term originally means a minor role in a theatrical production which usually has no speaking lines. But in daily conversations, it refers to anyone who only plays a bit role such as a utility man or a general handyman in any event, project or business.

有价无市
having a price but no sales
This Chinese term actually describes a situation where a product has a fictitious or prohibitively high price but no sales. For instance, many apartments and houses in the city’s property market today are so expensive that few could afford or intend to buy them. The term is a little bit satirical.

明日黄花
déclassé
The Chinese term literally means “tomorrow’s chrysanthemum.” It came from an ancient Chinese poem, in which the poet asked his guest to stay to appreciate the flower right then, because it would wither the next day. This term can be used to refer to people or things that have become out of fashion and of little value.

斩冲头
rip off a sucker
This is a Shanghai slang, meaning to treat someone as a pushover or foolish spender in a deal or transaction. If you were persuaded to buy something of poor quality at a high price, you would be called chongtou (sucker) by Shanghainese.

种源农业
seed variety cultivation
Plant varieties and seed cultivation are an important part of the so-called modern metropolitan agriculture that has been listed as a major goal of the city in developing its rural areas in the following five years.

本命年
year of fate
In ancient China, people believed that a person’s fate was a determined at birth, so the zodiac year of one’s birth would be one’s “year of fate.” To fend off the default “bad luck” in such a year, people tend to wear red underwear, read waistbands and red bracelets. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, this year is the “year of fate” for people who were born in the Year of the Dog.

做秀
publicity stunt
The term means some exaggerated or unusual behaviors people do to draw public attention to promote themselves, products or anything else. East China Normal University reportedly questioned a housekeeping service company’s recent attempt to hire students as temporary ayis was a publicity stunt.

不感冒
uninterested, peeved
Having no flu (bu ganmao)? That’s good. But don’t take the Chinese term verbatim. In colloquial conservations, this term means that one is uninterested in or even peeved by something others said or did. So don’t talk about Tamiflu when there’s no flu threat in sight.

城乡结合部
rural-urban fringe zone
Millions of migrants flowing into the city every year have turned the boundary zone outside the urban proper into bustling areas where the migrants can find affordable housing and relatively easy access to their work in downtown districts. Sometimes, however, the term has a pejorative intonation as it’s often deemed as a synonym of the hotbed for crimes and unlicensed shoddy products.

居家养老
home-based care for the aged
To cope with a quickly-aging society and the sharp shortage of facilities for the elderly, Shanghai has been advocating the so-called jujia yanglao, or home-based care for the aged. The city has adopted a number of measures, such as improving the community-based services and introducing schemes of providing cared and emergency aid to senior citizens who are living alone by pairing them with other families.

电子标签
RFID tags
Shanghai has planned to develop Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags during the 11th Five-Year Plan period（2006-2010）as one of its goals in boosting the fast-growing IT industry.
压岁钱
red packet, lucky money
In ancient china, people tended to put some copper coins wrapped in red paper beside the pillows of their children on the Lunar New Year’s Eve to drive away a devil called “sui.” It has evolved into today’s red packet or lucky money that parents and older relatives give to children during the Lunar New Year to wish them good luck.

搏客
podcaster
The word, a hybrid of “Ipod” and “broadcast,” refers to those who combine a group of technologies to distribute audio and video files over the Internet. Readers may receive podcasts of this buzzword column online or download them to an MP3 player from www.shanghaidaily.com.

私房菜
private home cuisine
Sifangcai or “private home cuisine” has become a fad in many large cities around the country. It’s a kind of home catering that features traditional family recipes in a setting just like home.

官府菜
official’s home cuisine
Most cooks at residences of senior officials in feudal China were able to prepare specialty dishes. The recipes passed down for generations have helped establish some restaurants offering such dishes, like Beijing-based the Tan’s restaurant.

拇指族
oyayubizoku, clan of the thumbs
The word came from Japan first. It refers to people who are skilled at using their thumbs to manipulate objects such as mobile phone keys, small joysticks, and notebook computer pointers. Now more and more Chinese young people have joined the clan of the thumbs as they use SMS as their major communication channel.

咸潮
salt tide
The tide takes place at the mouth of the Yangtze River every winter or early spring, when water flowing from the river decreases, causing chloride level to rise and even exceed the national standard. Local media reported the year’s first salt tide in the East China Sea may threaten one of Shanghai’s two sources of fresh water during the Spring Festival.

尾牙
year-end dinner party
Evolved from a tradition in southern Fujian Province for worshiping the god or a standard of colors, many employers have turned the last worship ritual in a year into a dinner party to treat their employees. It is particularly popular in Taiwan.

奇客
geek
The Chinese term, created according to the sound of the English word, literally means a “a strange guest.” One doesn’t have to be a computer expert or specialist to become a geek. If you are a computer aficionado with a free and unorthodox thinking, people call you a geek.

OBS 女人
OBS woman
Already over 30, they still keep the life style of a young girl. It doesn’t matter whether they are still single or married. They always walk down the street in girlish outfits and spend money on products originally targeting a younger generation. OBS stands for the Japanese word obasan, meaning “aunt” or “adult woman in general.”

天葬
celestial burial
Celestial burial is a funeral that has been practiced for more than 1,000 years in Tibet. Celestial practitioners feed a dead body to vultures, which they call holy eagles. The Tibetan government has recently decided to better protect the custom by banning photographing or making videos of celestial burial scenes.

网格员
grid inspector
This actually refers to city inspectors introduced in Shanghai’s Luwan District. Armed with a specially designed handy GPS mobile phone, the inspectors cover their respective designated area by walking a grid. They will report any “abnormalities,” such as traffic jams, misplaced garbage bags, a missing manhole cover and other eyesores, to the control center. The center then will decide how to deal with the reported problems.

创新型国家
innovation-oriented country
President Hu Jintao outlined China’s strategy to become an innovation-oriented country in 15 years during a science and technology conference in Beijing.

生肖票
zodiac stamp
At the beginning of each of year, the Chinese post office faithfully publishes sets of stamps to mark the zodiac animal of the new year on the Lunar Calendar. More than 100 enthusiastic philatelists lined up overnight last week at Shanghai Postal Museum to buy newly-issued stamps to commemorate the Year of the Dog.

陀飞轮手表
toubillon watch
Toubillon, invented by French watchmaker Abraham Louis Breguet in 1795, is a technology which improves a watch’s accuracy by nullifying the effect of gravity using a series of mechanisms. Shanghai Watch, a history-honored brand, recently introduced its first 50 limited edition tourbillion watches. They were purchased almost instantly.

血拼
shopping
This Chinese term literally means a “bloody fight,” but sounds similar to the English word that it stands for. In a commercial metropolis like Shanghai, shopping is a craze and can be “bloody.” Many of the city’s shopping malls, supermarkets, stored and restaurants open 24 hours a day over the New Year holiday and saw all their floors constantly packed with shoppers.

轰趴
home party
The Chinese term is a vivid translation based on the pronunciation of the English term. The Chinese term, however, has a far more i
晕
faint
Originally, the Chinese word means faint or dizzy. But now people tend to utter the word whenever they hear or see something unordinary, confusing, funny or just meaningless.

粗口
four-letter word
Dirty words used to express annoyance. Chinese film director Feng Xiaogang said some four-letter words to a female reporter during an interview last week. According to media reports, this was not the first time Feng has offered such words.

冷笑话
bad joke
Some bad jokes are very popular in many online forums these days. Many are not funny, but someone may laugh at it for no apparent reason.

主旋律
mainstream ideology or trend
The Chinese term borrows from musicology, which literally means the “key melody.” It is now often used to stand for the mainstream (or government-backed) ideology or trend.

红头文件
red-head document
This is a colloquial Chinese term for formal, official documents. They invariably bear the full name of the government or the government department that issues the document and the name is always printed in red on the top of the document’s front page.

火星贴
post from Mars
It refers to posts which are considered very old, have been published online long ago, could be seen everywhere, and are considered out of date by most viewers in a chat room.

咸猪手
salty pig feet, groper
Taiwan and Guangdong people refer to a man who tends to pay unwanted sexual attention to a fair lady as “zhuge,” which translates literally as “pig brother.” Hence, the hands (or “feet”) of the man who takes advantage of overcrowding to grope female passengers (or female colleagues in offices) are called xianzhushou.

黄段子
dirty joke, juicy episode
Chinese tend to call anything porn “yellow,” such as “yellow book,” “yellow movie” and “yellow picture.” Here, the Chinese term huangduanzi means literally “yellow episode,” which now often appears in chat rooms, cell phone short message and at dinner tables.

杀手锏
trump weapon
In ancient China, jian was not a very common weapon, but if someone could use it skillfully, it would prove to be a surprisingly decisive one. Today, the Chinese term shashoujian means a trump weapon, which is rarely used before.

淘浆糊
muddle through
This Shanghai slang dates back many decades and has an origin involving tailors and brothels. But today it is frequently used to indicate anyone who tries to muddle through an unfavorable situation by either muddling someone up or blurring the line between right and wrong.

换脸手术
face transplant
Six candidates for China’s first face transplant are waiting in a hospital in Jiangsu Province. The ideal patient will be chosen within two months and will be given surgery for free. The youngest candidate is a 6-year-old girl.

空军
no-house class, no-housers
This term is used in online chat rooms and BBS by urban residents, especially those youngsters who own no house. The Chinese term literally means air force in English.

房虫
house bug
People who buy apartments as an investment rather than accommodation are referred to as house bugs, or house investors. They are blamed on China’s mainland for helping drive up the prices of newly developed houses beyond the means of urbanites with average incomes. The central government’s policy to control the property market deals a heavy blow to the house bugs.

动漫
manga
The animated cartoons for theater, film, DVD, flash and so on have spread from Japan to the whole world.

抢沙发
sofa grabbing
Despite varying etymological accounts, it is generally agreed that the first person to post a follow-up comment or article after the thread starter assumes a sofa, implying a comfortable or important position. It is said it comes from a person who says “so fast” as a response to a responding comment immediately after the threat starter posts an article. The second follow-up comment poster will 坐板凳 (zuo4ban3deng4), or sit on a bench, implying a less comfortable or important place.

跟帖
follow-up comment
It refers to the comments or articles that are posted as a follow-up to what a thread starter did in a chat room or on BBS.

得来速
drive-thruMcDonald’s will open its first drive-thru restaurant in Shanghai this month to compete with KFC.

亚健康
semi-health
Semi-health conditions are half way between good health and ill health. Such conditions, including headache, insomnia, stiff shoulders and chronic constipation, are often diagnosed as symptoms of illness, but they are deemed by TCM doctors as warning signs of health deterioration or harbingers of ill health.

汗语 (han4yu3)
chat-room jargon
This is a team coined to refer to those buzzwords common in online chat rooms or articles but completely incomprehensible to those who read only mainstream publications. It plays on the phrase “汉语” meaning Mandarin, which is pronounced exactly the same way. “Han” in the former means sweat, reminding one of the characters sweating in an exaggeratedly profuse way when they are frightened, embarrassed, shocked or frustrated.

楼主
thread starter
The person whose article or comment on the BBS or online chat room triggered off discussions and arguments on a specific topic is often referred to as a thread starter. As his or her article or comment appears at the very top of a string of remarks, a thread starter is therefore nicknamed as louzhu (chief of the building). The following debaters are called dwellers of the second-floor, third-floor, etc, according to the appearance sequence of their comment.

天价
whopping price
The Chinese term literally means the price is as high as the sky An old man who is treated in a local hospital in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province last summer had to pay an unbelievably high price of 5.5 million yuan (US$680,000). Many expenses were later found to be fabricated by the hospital.

月光族
moonlite
This concocted Chinese term is the moniker for people who always spend all their salaries or earnings before the end of the month. The first Chinese character in the term means “month” or “moon,” and the second “leaving nothing behind” or “light.”

起蓬头
sudden pickup
THIS is a colloquial term used mainly in Shanghai area and the local dialect to describe something, such as sales or activities, beginning to pick up momentum quickly. It also implies a bit of hullabaloo.

过劳死
karoshi
THIS Chinese term is a direct translation of “death from overwork.” The term first appeared in Japan in the late 1980s to describe a new phenomenon of high-ranking business executives dying in their prime years without any previous signs of illness. Now the same thing is happening among middle-aged Chinese businessmen and professionals.

节约型社会
conservation-oriented society
DUE to urgent short supplies of energy, raw materials and other resources, the Chinese government has been urging the whole nation to go all out in building a more conservation-oriented society in order to pursue sustainable social-economic development.

飘一族
drifting generation
THOSE who give up their decent jobs to pursue their career dreams are called the drifting generation. They will move to wherever hope of dream come true is beckoning them. They live on odd jobs, mostly freelance, and live in rented houses, varying from a shabby shed way to a serviced apartment.

版主(斑竹)
BBS moderator
THIS term is frequently used among netizens. The Chinese term in the brackets is actually a rib tickler applied here mainly because it shares a similar pronunciation to the official term. Originally, it is the name of the Mottled Bamboo.

闪婚
flash marriage
In a metropolis like Shanghai, speed is everything. So, the “eight-minute speed dating” has become quite popular, particularly among young white-collar workers. Over the weekend, several hundred single men and women participated in a “flash marriage” event, hoping to find their Mr/Miss Right there and then tie the knot in a matter of days or even hours, if not minutes.

老大难
nagging problem, nuptially challenged
This is a very common Chinese term as everyone could face some “old, big problems”(if translated verbatim). However, it is also frequently used to call bachelors or spinsters who have passed the best marrying age and now find it difficult to find a desirable person to marry.

退耕还林
grain for green project
In order to restore the ecological balance in west China, the central government has initiated a program to offer grain subsidies to local farmers and encourage them to turn low-yielding farmland back to forest and pastures. The Chinese government has allocated 61.7 billion yuan (US$7.63 billion) for this project over the next five years.

现金池
cash pool
This is a sophisticated system for managing funds for corporations. It optimize the interest results of a group of businesses. China Merchants Bank in October initiated the foreign exchange cash pool, the first of its kind on the Chinese mainland.

生活家
life-ist
The pompous term is popular with those who claim to know how to make the best of their life, even on a meager income.

翘课
cutting classes
Five foreign students were expelled from the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics for not attending enough classes in the current semester.

自闭症儿童
autistic child
There are reportedly more than 10,000 children suffering from autism in Shanghai and there is no know cure. Japan recently donated US$80,000 to a Shanghai kindergarten to improve the treatment for such children.

小混混
dawdling punk
This Chinese term is derogative. It refers to teenagers or young people who do nothing but hang around.

白骨精
office elite
This is the name of a siren in the famous Chinese novel “Journey to the West.” But, today it is also used as a new title for white-collar office workers who excel in their career. Instead of the “White-Bone Demon,” the three Chinese characters in this term refers to white-collar, backbone and elite, respectively, in its new usage.

沙尘暴
sandstorm
Sandstorms that swept Beijing and other northern cities over the weekend have worsened the air quality of 50 percent of China’s already most polluted cities.

布波族/波波族
bo-bos
The word is a shorthand for Bourgeois-Bohemians, which refers to the young who have the hybrid characteristics of the 1960s hippies and 1980s yuppies. They are well-educated and barely bound by tradition, prefer fashionable clothes and modern appliances, but are always moving their home between cities and the countryside to avoid a stereotyped life.

油价联动机制
fuel-related fare adjustment
At a public hearing held last week on the effects of rising gasoline prices on the city’s taxi fleet, it became clear some adjustment was needed to take the burden off cabbies suffering from an earnings squeeze. Taxi fares may also change according to the oil prices in the market.

招牌菜
signature dishes/house special
Dianping.com, a Website recommending famous restaurants and dishes, has recently become popular. You can easily find the most famous dishes of a restaurant on that Website.

行头
gearSome children in middle schools vie with each other to wear fashionable clothing and accessories. The equipment needed for a sport or professional activity, like roller skating, mountain climbing or firefighting, is also referred to as hangtou.

败家子
black sheep
The Chinese term has a narrower meaning than the English one. The Chinese term only refers to a member of a family who is undesirable.

官瘾
lust for official power
Guan in Chinese means “officialdom.” Yin means “lust.” This Chinese term describes many people who lust official power.

消费税
excise tax
The nation hopes the excise tax it started on April 1 to levy on cars, as well as other luxury products, will control the number of sedans on the roads as part of its effort to cut energy use and rein in air pollution.

全武行
acrobatic fighting, scuffle
The term originally means the acrobatic fighting in traditional Chinese operas. These days it refers to the undue fighting or violence at a public place such as in the street or a parliament hall.

老克勒
class, cognoscente
This is a well-known Chinglish term in the Shanghai dialect, which derived from the English word “class” of “classy” in the 1930s and 1940s. The Chinese term was used to describe the “high-class” Shanghai gentlemen who lived a Western-style life in the city. Now, it also has a connotation of being around a lot and knowing all the answers.

搞定
fix something or someone
To gaoding someone has almost the same meaning as “fixing” someone. It could mean you have reached a deal with someone, or even have someone deep-sixed. To gaoding something also has similar meanings as “fixing” something.

黑广告
illegal ad poster
The city’s Huangpu District authority is planning to launch a campaign to stop illegal advertising posters in the Bund area, which are mostly phone numbers about fake medicines and other illicit businesses. Some people also call the posters “psoriasis” because of their ugly appearance.

裸聊
nude web-cam session
Police in Jiangsu Province have caught a hacker who snuck into a couple’s nude web-cam session, and took stills of the wife and e-mailed them to the couple “for fun.”

面霸
interview buster
Some young people are always on the hunt for better jobs even though they already have one or got other offers. So, they take endless interviews at different places. The Chinese term was borrowed form a well-known instant noodle brand because the two Chinese characters, “face” and “buster,” have some implication of such a phenomenon.

农家乐
farmer’s home inn
During the weeklong golden holidays, people often cannot find hotels in popular sites, so some farmers will lend their houses to tourists, which are cheaper than normal hotels. Tourists can also eat with the farmer’s family and do farmer chores for fun.

偷着胖
unnoticeably fat, a hidden fatty
Those who don’t look fat with clothes on, but are actually quite plump are called a hidden fatty in northern China. It takes great efforts to be secret about one’s subcutaneous fat these days when revealing clothing is in, especially for young women.

触电（chu4dian4）
flick appearance, thrill
The term was first used to describe a person who acts for the first time in a movie on the sideling of his or her profession. Now it applies to whoever gives it a try on TV or theatrical stages or in any business related to entertainment and high-tech outside their regular job. It also means the thrill you feel when excited or surprised.

人来疯
get hyped before crowd
Many children tend to close their usual self and turn unruly when guests drop by. It is also used to describe the rarely exhibited showy behavior of an adult at the presence of a crowd of strangers.

骨灰级
guru
Those well-acclaimed masters in a field are referred to by today’s youngsters as someone at a guhui level. However, caution is suggested when speaking in the face of such a master, if he or she is elderly, as he or she may take offense at the Chinese term, which means bone ashes.

票友
amateur-pros
In old days, traditional Chinese opera performers were placed on the lower rungs of the social ladder. Some high-class people good at the art only performed as a hobby, rather than a way of eking out a living like professional opera singers. These days, any amateur performers who can beat pros are also referred to as a piaoyou.

卡奴
card slave
Along with the popular use of credit cards in some large cities in China, some card users, especially youngsters with large shopping addictions and small salaries, gradually become credit card slaves, because they borrow form one credit card to pay off debts on another credit card. Due to their meager salaries, they always live on the edge of bankruptcy.

飙车
drag racing
Living a better life than before, some Chinese youngsters are infatuated with drag racing. Recently the Chinese media reported that some people drove their Coach Builder Cars at a dangerous speed racing around Beijing’s ring roads. The police have arrested two youngsters in their 20s this year for driving at nearly 150kilometers an hour in downtown streets.

人脉
connections
Ren literally means a human and mai, veins and arteries, which are traditionally deemed essential to good health. Some experts say friendships and other personal relations may push an entrepreneur a solid step toward success.

草根艺人
mudsill artiste
The past few years have seen quite a few self-taught artistes, particularly stand-up comedians, around the country rise to the national fame. The Chinese term translates literally “artiste from the grassroots.” Although they practice a “low” art form, they are getting high ratings and laughs.

网络电话
VoIP
VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is a method to turn analog audio signals into digital date that can be transmitted over the Internet. By using some of the free VoIP software, one can make Internet phone calls by bypassing the phone companies as well as their charges.

抽条
shoot up, give short weight
Based on the phenomenon of plants sprouting in spring, this term has been used to describe kids reaching puberty and beginning to shoot up. But now it is also used to mean a business fraud of giving customers short weight by randomly taking away small amount of products from large packs.

走光
wardrobe malfunction
This is a euphemism to describe an accidental exposure of some intimate parts of human body. For instance, Janet Jackson blamed her scandalous breakaway dress in her Super Bowl performance in 2004 on a “wardrobe malfunction.”

外挂
cheating program
Cheating programs are designed to help players skip some tough or tedious steps in an online game to accumulate more experience points. Such programs make the games easier to play, but they may deprive players of the excitement in online games.

马甲 (ma3jia2)
online alias
The Chinese term literally means waistcoat. Now, it’s also used to describe fake names a Net surfer uses for chat-room discussions or as a camouflage to support himself or herself by posting articles under fake names.

发烧友
aficionado, buff
The Chinese term translates literally a “feverish friend.” Next weekend the city will make another spectacular pirouette on the international stage as the world’s greatest rock band, the Rolling Stones, plays their first Chinese mainland concert here. Naturally, the event is expected to attract hundreds of “feverish” rock fans.

井喷 (jing3pen1)
blowout, cough up
A gas blowout happened in southwestern China’s Chongqing last weekend and forced more than 14,000 people to evacuate from their homes while firemen and specialists tried several times to cap the leaking gas well. The term can also be used to describe someone coughing up information.

踏青
spring outing
The Chinese term vividly depicts one who merrily goes on a trip in spring. Ta means “step on” or “walk by,” while “qing” means the greenness of grass. For hundreds of years, taqing has been associated with the tomb sweeping activities around the Qingming (Clear and Bright) Festival, which falls on April 5.

乐活族
LOHAS
It is the acronym of “life style of health and sustainability,” referring to a group of people who are optimistic, understanding, caring about environment and health, and doing good and as well as feeling good. This concept originated in Britain in the middle of last century.

摩客
mook
It is a combination of magazine and book, which is regularly published and can be subscribed to. This form of publication, which first appeared in Japan, has become quite popular among young people.

海豚音
dolphin-vocal-sounding
Zhang Liangying, one of the three winners in last year’s Super Girl contest, is known for her dolphin-vocal-sounding, a special singing technique. Mariah Carey is said to be the one who can use the technique best.

飞行特技
aerobatics
Russian air forces recently staged an airplane acrobatics show in the zhangjiajie tourist area in central China’s Hunan Province. Daredevil though they may be, the air acrobatic team dropped a plan to fly through a hole on the peak of a local mountain because of the dangers and ensuing environment damage.

乌鸦嘴
jinxing mouth
Chinese believe the crow cawing could bring an unlucky spell on people. So, anyone who has a jinxing mouth is said to have a wuyazui or “crow’s mouth,” a persona non grata in any conservation or discussion.

软肋
soft spot, Achilles’ heel
The word literally translates as a soft rib, but Chinese people use it to represent the most vulnerable spot of a person, a program or system.

绿领
green-collar
A green-collar has the stamina of a blue-collar, education of a white-collar and wealth of a gold-collar. They pursue a healthy and environment-friendly lifestyle, like shutting cell phones after work to ensure enough free time, never eating without heeding nutrition, spending weekends traveling out-of-town whenever they can, and the signature one - always taking a trash bag to clean up pet’s waste.

八荣八耻
Eight Do’s and Don’t’s
Chinese President Hu Jintao recently called on the whole nation and particularly young people to adopt the “socialist concept of honor and disgrace,” also known as “Eight Do’s and Don’t’s.” The list reads: “Love, do not harm the motherland; Serve, don’t disserve the people; Uphold science; don’t be ignorant and unenlightened; Work hard; don’t be lazy and hate work; Be united and help each other; don’t gain benefits at the expense of others; Be honest and trustworthy, not profit-mongering at the expense of your values; Be disciplined and law-abiding instead of unruly and lawless; Respect plain living and hard struggle, do not wallow in luxuries and pleasures.”
蕾丝边
lesbian
The Chinese term is basically a transliteration of the English word “lesbian,” but with a much more vivid image as it literally means the fancy laces of women’s stockings, petticoats, pajamas and bras.

倒按揭
reverse mortgage
The city has been considering the introduction of a reverse mortgage program to help cope with the growing problem of an aging society. The program, also referred to as a home equity conversion loan, first appeared in New Jersey of the United States more than 20 years ago. It was designed to allow seniors to access the equity in their homes.

驴友
tour pals
The literal translation, “donkey pal,” sounds the same as the Chinese word for travel. It refers to the increasing number of backpackers who team up for budget tours after making the arrangements over the Internet rather than through a travel agency.

口水歌
resung song
Some mediocre singers have to sing the hit songs of pop stars or well-known folk songs to attract an audience and build their way to stardom. Such resung songs are also popular with karaoke goers as they are usually within ordinary people’s singing capability.

瘦身
slimming, streamlining
The term of getting slimmer has been generalized to mean reducing the size of almost anything. It could be streamlining government departments, shrinking investment plans or even reducing the weight of school kids’ satchels.

扫街
street sweeping
Street sweeping does not just mean to clean the street any more. Now it can be used to describe activities involving a complete scrutiny of shops or people in a street. Tourists could sweep a street by visiting every food stall or bar there and paparazzi could sweep a street by closely watching everything moving there to wait for an exclusive shot.

物权法
property rights law
The draft for the country’s first such law has been discussed during the past days at the nation’s legislature. The law covers movable and immovable properties, ranging from ownership of a house to ownership of a company.

屏蔽门
metro barrier door
The city plans to install the barrier doors at 12major stations along the Metro Line 1 by the end of this year to save energy and protect the safety of passengers, particularly during the rush hours.

下三赖
riffraff, low-class
Many Chinese students tend to use the literal English translation of this term, “down three bad.” As a translation, it’s not bad, since it conveys almost the right sense. In daily conversation, however, the term is widely used to express scorn.

紧急避孕药 )
morning-after pill
It’s as medical method to help prevent unwanted pregnancies following unprotected sex or failed contraception. The Shanghai Family Planning Instruction Institute will cooperate with the Shanghai Pharmaceutical Association to train pharmacists and clerks at 1,000 drugstores on the proper use of the morning-after pill.

大跌眼镜
glasses dropper
This Chinese term vividly describes a situation where you’re so stunned by something that the glasses fall from the bridge of your nose. Of course, your glasses-dropping could also be caused by the fact that your idea or prediction about something is proved to be wrong as wrong could ever be.

放鸽子
stand up, no-show
This Chinese term, flying a pigeon, derives from an old lottery scheme in Shanghai and the fact that the owner who sets free a trained homing pigeon would lose nothing since the bird always knows the way back home. Now, it is frequently used to describe the behavior of standing somebody up, playing no-show or offering empty promises.

倒春寒
cold snap in spring
Spring has come, but from time to time people still may experience cold snaps. It’s a common weather phenomenon in the city. People now, however, tend to use this term to depict unexpected setbacks in a booming business.

红眼航班
red-eye flight
China’s aviation regulator has lifted the ban on red-eye flights, which refers to flights departing from 12:00am to 6:00am, as passengers deplaning from such flights tend to have blood-shot and bleary eyes because of sleep deprivation.

饮水机
water dispenser
Local authorities are conducting inspections of water dispensers used in offices and other public places in response to media reports that many such machines have serious quality problems that could create health risks.

装修房
finished apartment
The city plans to promote marketing of more finished apartments, complete with flooring, bathroom and kitchen units and painted walls and windows, in an attempt to cut down noise pollution and prevent destruction of residential buildings resulting from individuals’ random plans of installing equipment in and decorating their new homes.

夫妻相
husband-wife looks
In the west, people say if a couple live together long enough, the husband and wife tend to resemble each other and even become look-alike. In China, many believe that the marriage will last longer between a man and a woman who share some matching or similar facial features. So, the husband-wife looks are deemed as one of the criteria for looking for one’s other half.

达人
pro, doyen
This term refers to someone who is a pro, doyen or even an established authority in a specific field of knowledge. Young people tend to use this term more frequently and particularly in their online communication.

伏都娃娃
voodoo doll
Voodoo dolls have hit the market in Shanghai as boys and girls buy them in the belief that the dolls can bring good luck to them and bad luck to their enemies. But don’t bet all your luck on a small needle that pierces a voodoo doll. Better treat such a doll as fun, not your savior.

馒头门
Bungate
He Ge, a Chinese young man made an Internet parody, entitled “The killing over a bun” to satirized “The promise,” one of the most expensive films ever made in China by Chen Kaige, a famous Chinese film director. Chen threatened to sue Hu over copyright violation. Now, Bungate has become a hotly-debated controversy in China.

爆料
tip off, blow the whistle
Many news media nowadays rely heavily on tip-offs from their stringers or street tipsters to scoop some exclusive news. They usually offer the tipsters a handsome reward in cash. Seeing this trend, some laid-off workers and migrants have turned tipping into a business to eke out a living.

撞衫
clothing clashing
This Chinese term means two or more people appear in a gathering or a public place accidentally wearing identical clothing. So, all fashion-minded ladies would try their very best to avoid zhuangshan or “clothing clashing.” For them, clothing clashing is a disaster or an embarrassment, to say the least.

反式脂肪
trans fat
Trans fat, also known as trans fatty acid, is made through the chemical process of hydrogenation of oils. It has been making headlines as consumers become aware that the artery-clogging fat is lurking in many food products, including fried fast food.

醋溜族
trendy clan
A group of metropolitan youth is happily caught in the dilemma of following trend and freeing themselves from restrictions. They like brassy appearances but hate neat dressing; like making money but love spending beyond their means; and long for romance but dread responsibilities. The phrase comes from a cartoon series by a Taiwan artist.

蹦迪
disco dancing
Dancing discos in nightclubs or bars is a popular entertainment among young people who want to get some exercise and find a way of catharsis. But many nightclubs are often involved in complaints by nearby residents for the noise created by them, such as loud music and blaring car horns.

绿标
green sticker, emission decal
The city government has recently issued a green sticker to every car that meets the emission standards and banned the rest from using the elevated roads during the day time. The new rule, however, has unintentionally helped spawn a fly-by-night business of selling fakes to those whose vehicle has slim chance of passing an emission test.

吃豆腐
take advantage of, come on to
Eating tofu, as this Chinese phrase literally means, is not just common at dinner tables, but also very popular in daily conversations among locals. But in conservations, this phrase usually means a man takes advantage of or comes on to a woman. It may also be used among people of the same sex, when one bullies another verbally or even physically.

循环课本
used textbook
The Chinese term, “recycled textbook,” actually means used books as you see in many US colleges. Some Shanghai schools have begun to promote used books to save resources.
起步费
base rate, initial meter charge
The city has just raised the taxi base rate from 10 yuan for the first three kilometers to 11 yuan and the additional kilometer rate from 2.0 yuan to 2.1 yuan to offset the soaring prices in the world and domestic oil markets.

抓辫子
catch someone’s mistake
The Chinese term translates literally “pigtail gripping.” It used to be a crucial tactic in winning the upper hand in a bare-hand fight during the Qing Dynasty, when every man had to keep a pigtail on the back of his head. Nowadays, however, the term is often used to mean picking out and catching someone’s mistakes, particularly in political campaigns.

滑头
slippery fellow, Teflon character
If someone has a “slippery head,” nothing can be stuck on it. Chinese use this term to describe persons to whom criticism does not seem to stick or people who are cunning and sneaky.

见光死
killer light
The Chinese phrase means someone dies by being exposed to the light. Now, it is used to describe the unfortunate outcome of the first date between two people who have fallen in love after chatting on the Internet and/or on the phone without ever seeing each other in person. The romantic bubble often bursts when the two meet in real life as delusion is dispelled by reality.

霸王条款
big-brother term, despot term
The terms in a commercial contract brainworked to ensure one party’s absolute advantage over the other party, usually the client, in transaction are called “bawang tiaokuan” or “terms of the overlord.”

脱女博客
blog stripper
The phrase refers to those female bloggers who go to the desperate length of posting their scantily clad or even nude pictures online to attract visitors and gain fame.

下沉式广场
sunken square
A sunken square that serves as a pedestrian access to shops around the busy crossing of five major roads in Yangpu District recently opened. Entertainment facilities are also available at the square.

呕像
disgusting icon
The term sounds the same as another Chinese term “ouxiang” which literally means an idol. These days anyone who has managed to gain fame, through negative, nasty means, is called a disgusting icon.

软实力
soft power
From “Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics”— a book written by Joseph Nye, who was said to create the concept in the 1990s. Soft power is the ability to get what a country wants by attracting and persuading others to approve and support its goals.


杀青
clinch, wrap
The term literally means degreening, a process to treat fresh tea leaves. The term is also used to depict a method of baking bamboo slips more than 2,000 years ago in preparation for them to be written on. Today, however, it is often used to describe wrapping up a film shoot or in a broader sense, clinching a project.

安全岛
safety island
Shanghai police are trying to improve traffic facilities to ensure road safety. Safety islands have been built in the middle of some wide roads around the city to offer pedestrians a temporary haven from rushing traffic.

闹洞房
bridal chamber pranks
It’s Chinese tradition that guests crowd into the bridal chamber to tease the newly-wed couple after the wedding banquet. Anything goes here and sometimes it turns into a rather rowdy gathering that lasts late into the night.

红色炸弹
red bomb
As the price tag of wedding gift money keeps rising, more people worry when they receive wedding party invitation cards, usually wrapped in a fancy red envelope. They call such red envelopes “red bombs.” They may easily cost you several hundred to several thousand yuan depending on how close you are to the bride or bridegroom.

作女
high-maintenance woman
Such women need a lot of care and attention from a partner. Men usually have to spend a lot of money to maintain their relationship because these women tend to have an endless stream of demands.

炒作
sensationalize
It is a popular way to promote a film, a star or anyone who wants to be famous. For example, you may hear a film’s star fall in love during the production, which is actually used to attract more attention to the movie.

秀豆
short
The Chinese term is based on the Japanese pronunciation of the English word “short.” Originally, it means short circuit, but now it describes someone whose brain suddenly stops functioning and can’t even work out simple problems.

草莓族
strawberry clan
This term refers to students fresh from school. Just like the fresh fruit, they usually have a good appearance, but are easily perishable as they lack work experience or the moxie to fight pressure.

来电
tingle, spark
Chinese often say there’s an “electric current” flowing between a man and a woman. They may say they feel “a spark.” So, if one wants to decline a relationship, he or she might blame the shortage of electricity.

恶搞
kuso
The term refers to the online popular fad of turning a famous song, movie or other artwork into a parody that offends some people but amuses others. It is a Japanese word.

暴利税
windfall profit tax
China has started levying tax on outrageous profits oil businesses reap in the hope that it can make up for the losses these monopolies cause to disadvantaged groups and public welfare services.

负心汉
love rat, love cheat
A Website run by a young woman that exposes the private details of men who cheat their girlfriends of not only love, but also property has spawned many follow-up articles. But it has raised concerns about privacy rights and doubt about the credibility of the “sad stories.”

内功
inner power
The term originally referred to the rare power a kungfu master accumulated in the inner organs, such as control of breathing to enhance the impact of a punch. These days, people often use it to describe an organization’s competitiveness and efficiency resulting from its internal system and innovation.

古惑仔
offbeat boys
The phrase refers to teenagers who pursue an unconventional lifestyle and behavior, including weird hairstyles and clothing and accessories. They also tend to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes and get into street fights. They account for about 70 percent of juvenile delinquents in big cities across the country.

爆棚
packed; a box-office hit
The word is believed to have made its way into Mandarin from Hong Kong via the Guangdong dialect. Bao literally means burst and peng, a shed or shack.

人脸识别系统
facial recognition system
Beijing announced lately that it will equip a facial recognition system in 500 shopping malls to improve security measures during the 2008 Olympic Games.

背包游
backpacker tour
Aboout 3.9 million tourists are expected to flock to Shanghai during the Labor Day holiday this year. The backpacker trend is also on the rise.

大佬
big brother, doyen
The Chinese term is most frequently used in Cantonese dialect films, which means “big brother” or doyen. It is not necessarily derogative.
赞
superduper
This Chinese word, meaning “to praise,” is now widely used on the Internet by Chinese Netizens to extol and recommend a movie, a story or any other things. It conveys the mixed feeling of appraisal, approval, recommendation and admiration.

钉子户
holdout
The term, literally “nail household,” is first used to describe home owners who block new development projects by refusing to move as they look for better terms or compensation from the developers. Now it is also used for anyone who holds out against certain policies or arrangements.

老字号
time-honored business
Chinese traditionally believe in shops or industrial establishments that have survived decades or centuries of competition from their rivals.

炮轰
bombard with criticism
The Chinese term, “bombing,” is often used figuratively to describe the act of bombarding someone or some organization with criticism.

生猛
undaunter, unfearing
The word is often used to describe young people who are a bit overoptimistic about the future and know no fear. They are usually smart and energetic, but a bit “raw” and immature.

毒舌派
sharp tongue
Recently judges of some televised singing contests in China have become bitter and mean in criticizing the contestants, which has won the acclaim from a growing number of viewers but criticism from others who find such pungent words not only discouraging but also humiliating.

海选
competitive election
The Chinese term is very vivid, which means selection from a sea of candidates. It also means that any9one can vote for his or her favorite candidate. As this year’s Super Girl Contest, the Chinese version of the American Idol, is well under way, “haixuan” has become a buzzword again.

编外
outside the staff establishment
Under the planned economy, the government assigned to every work unit in China an authorized staff establishment or manning scale. Some still do. But often such work units or government departments need to hire people outside the fixed establishment and such employees usually are denied some privileges or perks for their counterparts who are within the staff establishment.

边缘人
marginal man
It refers a person who lives in the marginal area of a social sector or a profession. It can also be used for a person who straddles two cultures in society.
拗造型
poseur
The Chinese term derives from Shanghai dialect and has become very popular among young people. It describes someone who attempts to achieve a status, look or appeal which they do not have the traits to possess. The Chinese term may also be used as verb to mean someone’s acting that way.

丁狗族
DIDK
Some young couples in China’s large cities prefer to raise a pet dog instead of having a baby these days. DIDK, double income, dog for kid, is based on the word DINK (double income, no kid.).

挖角
talent drain
The practice has spread from companies and academic facilities to secondary schools in China. To enroll high-quality students, some senior middle schools even offer cash rewards to straight A students graduate from junior middle schools.

留守儿童
cold-nest kids
A man buying the virginity of nearly 20 teenage girls in Henan Province whose parents were away doing migrant work has again raised public concern for kids who live in a home short of parental warmth and proper education.

大胃王
King/Queen of Eating
Miyuki Iwata, a “Queen of Eating” from Japan, has a gargantuan appetite that she puts to full effect at eating competitions around the world. She won the Asia Eating Contest final in Shanghai on May 28.

掘博
Blog digging
Blogs have been becoming an increasingly popular method for people to record their lives and share their experience with others. Many people also like to read others’ blogs. They dig into archives to learn more about the blog owner.

卡娃
card kid
It’s a new term referring to teenagers who disseminate all kinds of advertising cards, such as discounted air tickets, to pedestrians or bicyclists in streets or other public places. They have become a public nuisance as they literally harass people while distributing the cards. Last year, Shanghai street cleaners collected 24 tons of such cards.

裸考
naked exam
This is word-for-word translation of the newly invented Chinese term. It does not mean that one takes a test with nothing on. It means a “pure test,” in which no one can get any special treatment, such as winning additional points because of one’s other talents or performance. In the past, student who have artistic or athletic gifts, were often given extra points on their academic exams.

碰瓷帮
porcelain-crashing gang
The Chinese term refers to those who intentionally throw themselves onto or in front of a driving car to get compensation. The term employs the word porcelain because it’s fragile and could be costly.

拼一族
the pooling clan
Urban young people in China are expanding the carpooling to Go-Dutch-type cost sharing of glossy magazines, pricey dinners, promotion coupons and whatever else they feel is too expensive if they pay alone.

蛋白质
lunatic jerk
The online jargon has nothing to do with protein, which is meant literally by the Chinese term. Actually, it is a coinage from three different Chinese characters that describe those who are dull and insane.

通吃
fix-all
The word is believed to have come from gambling when someone has a landslide winning hand or a game where winner takes all. These days, people also use it to refer to a silver-bullet solution or tactic.

团购
group purchase
Some people like to form a group to buy things, like furniture, cosmetics, automobiles, digital cameras and even houses at a wholesale price. Shanghai Volkswagen Co has issued China’s first co-branded credit card in the automobile industry to offer discounts for auto buyers. Card holders can enjoy value-added services, including test driving, group purchase, favorable auto financing and car maintenance.

急痞
zippies
Zippies are those who are fond of higher living standard, brave to show ambition and grasping every possible opportunity. They are willing to do anything that may give them chance to succeed.

杀熟
friend hacker
This term refers to those who make use of their friends’ trust to rip them off. They usually sell to their friends or relatives products including cosmetics, tonics and even insurances at a price higher than the market tag.

黄梅天
plum rain season
The season is a 20-odd-day period of wet weather that occurs each year around the time when plum gets ripe. It usually begins in mid-June and ends in early July in areas along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

闷骚
surprise package
The term refers to people who look plain, cold or even dull outside, but inside they are volatile, charismatic, hot and sexy. It may also be usd to describe a person’s duplicitous personality, but mostly in the eulogistic sense.
护考
exam escort
The practice repeats itself during the annual college entrance exam every year. Parents accompany their children to the exam venue and wait anxiously outside till the exam is over. They make reservation for lunch at nearby restaurants and some even rent a room to make sure that their children eat and rest well during the break between two exams.

别苗头
vie，compete for favor
The phrase comes from Shanghai dialect and is translated into mandarin phonetically. It’s an informal way of saying competition and usually indicates some sly moves on both sides.

过劳模
overworked workers, model of models
Those who work far more than eight hours a day, either voluntarily or otherwise, are called a “guolaomo,” or an overworked worker. Accordingly, they may draw either juice of joy or poison of pain from the long working hours. The term is coined after the word karoshi.

腔调
aura, manner
The word means an accent or tone of expression in Mandarin but takes on a rich array of meanings in Shanghai dialect. It can refer to polished taste in clothing, well-paced elegance in behavior, sleek manner in spending, or even well-acclaimed style in handling, a tricky issue. It can also mean a special kind of attitude.

下猛药
drastic measures
When people adopt drastic measures to solve a nagging problem or a widespread social headache, the act is preferred to as a case of xiamengyao. The expression literally means to “prescribe a strong medicine” for a serious ailment.

超额配售
green shoe option
A provision in an underwriting agreement which allows the underwriter to purchase additional initial public offering shares at the original price after the shares begin trading. The name comes from the fact that Green Shoe Company was the first to grant such an option to underwriters. It also called over-allotment provision.

围堰
cofferdam
China last week demolished the last cofferdam which protected the main wall of the Three Georges Dam on the Yangtze River in central China’s Hubei Province. The removal of the top of the temporary structure means the Three Georges Project has formally begun its role in flood control, two years ahead of schedule.

虾米
what
On a BBS, this popular word means “what.” It came from China’s southern Fujian dialect, which pronounces “what” in Chinese similar to “xiami”—dried small shrimps.


色糖
A non-Asian girl or woman
A piece of 'colored-candy.'

马子
A whatever kind of girl
One who you take out, drink with, and do whatever with, a loose woman. Not the kind of girl you bring home to mom.

狐狸精
The Fox Spirit
The Fox Spirit is a mythical soul sucking spirit that also appears in the Journey to the West. It masqueraded as a woman, seduced men and then, after peeling off its skin at night, would slowly drain their life away. Today, a hulijing is a seductress, a tramp, or a minx

北大荒
'The Great Northern Wilderness' of northeast China
A metaphorical term meaning a frigid or cold hearted lass.

闭月羞花
A woman who 'outshines the moon and puts the flowers to shame
Biyuexiuhua Praises feminine beauty: delicate, demure, and fragile.

足球寡妇
football widow
Not everyone is thrilled about the World Cup, especially the wives of feverish football fans. With shopping discounts and traveling specials offered by sharp-sighted business people, these women will manage through this difficult month.

定心丸
heart-soothing pill
People tend to take pills to calm the overly fast heartbeat caused by anxiety, concern, worry or extreme uncertainty. The Chinese term for such a pill is also used to describe reassuring advice, a plan, proposal or solution that helps to restore one’s confidence.

避风头
dodge the brunt, lie low
The Chinese term translates literally “to dodge the brunt of the wind.” One way to stay out of the trouble and avoid being caught is to avoid the hot track and lie low.

碰钉子
hit a snag, get snubbed
It’s painful to bump into either end of a nail. The Chinese term, meaning literally “bumping into a nail,” is often used to describe the situation in which one’s plan either hits the wall or gets snubbed. If you are “politely” rebuffed by others, we say you have bumped into a “soft nail.”

伪球迷
biased fans, follow-suit fans
Soccer or basketball fans who spare no effort to promote their favorite teams or players but speak ill of all others are called biased fans. The term may also mean people who just follow the behavior of true fans to share some excitement.

捧杀
excessive praise, liberal extollment
The Chinese term is composed of two words “praise” and “kill.” When media shower excessive praise upon a person in the limelight, they unintentionally throw obstacles in the way of his or her advancement in career or simply kill their future.

帮帮忙
come on, give me a break
The colloquial expression serves as a mild request for help in Mandarin, but in Shanghai dialect, it is an admonition before arguing against a remark someone has made.

玩转
having command of, being adept in
The two Chinese characters in this term are “play” and “spin.” So, if one has learned to “play” a game and can make it “spin,” he is deemed as having a good command of the skill. Actually, the term can be used for any skill, practice, profession or operation.

网络黑帮
cyber gang
Recently, some cyber hackers have blackmailed Website owners by attacking their Websites with DDoS, or Distributed Denial of Service, and demanded money or consultancy “fee.”

枪手还有一说法：ringer
拍砖
striking bricks
In Chinese net-speak, "striking bricks" is a concept similar to flaming - commenters write posts directing their fury at someone or something.

小妞
chick
A general name on the street meaning a young girl

生白族
life idiot
This term refers to youth who cannot handle their daily chores, such as washing clothes, folding quilts, cooking food, and even tying shoe laces, because of their parents’ over indulgence. Such young people are “idiots in life,” the literal meaning of the Chinese term.

三股势力
“Three Forces”
Shanghai Cooperation Organization member countries signed 10 documents, including an agreement on cutting off the infiltration channels of the “Three Forces,” namely terrorists, separatists and extremists at a summit meeting on June 15 in Shanghai.

绿帽子
green hat
In China, you never give a man and particularly a married man a green cap or hat. He may very well take it as an insult, because it’s the symbol of a cuckold in the Chinese culture. So, when you say a man’s wearing a green hat, you actually call him a cuckold.

临时抱佛脚
make hasty, last-minute efforts
The Chinese term means literally to hold the Buddha’s feet just before the need for a blessing. It is often used to describe someone making hasty, last-minute efforts to tackle some problems, which usually prove to be too little and too late.

抛绣球
throw an embroidered ball
Throwing embroidered satin balls is often seen in games played by young people of minority nationalities in China. Also, a young woman may throw an embroidered ball to a young man at a ceremony as a way to choose a husband. Now it can also be used to mean an opportunity offered by someone or some organization.

散伙饭
goodbye dinner
This is a popular way among college students to say goodbye to each other when they graduate. They always drink a lot in the dinner and laugh or cry to show their reluctance to part. Many restaurants near campuses all across China are banking on such dinner parties during this season.

迎峰度夏
gear up for summer power consumption peak
Shanghai will launch a campaign to fight against power shortage in summer, because the city’s demands for power will reach 20.5 million kilowatts this summer, growing 10.2 percent from a year earlier.

玩心跳
play heartbeat
The two Chinese words in this term are “play” and “heartbeat.” When you decide to play with your heartbeat, you’re about to engage in exciting and often dangerous activities that that will quicken your heartbeat and cause an adrenalin surge. Bungee jumping is a good example of such activities.
官腔
bureaucratic jargon
Some Chinese speak in bureaucratic jargon when they deal with people unknown to them especially when they are civil servants
(government officials), once they get familiar with each other through bribery in most cases, no bureaucratic jargon any mo
re between them.


失写症
computer-induced agraphia
This is a newly emerging “illness” among people who use computers all the time. Its symptom is the partial loss of the ability to write correct Chinese characters with pen and paper. Unlike usual agraphia, a disorder marked by loss of the ability to write, it has nothing to do with brain damage and can often be cured if the “patient” is willing to pick up the pen and paper again.

老娘舅
avuncular arbitrator
In Shanghai dialect, the Chinese term, an uncle on the mother’s side, is often used to depict an avuncular person who plays the role of an unofficial arbitrator for neighborhood or trivial disputes.

挂羊头，卖狗肉
bait and switch
The popular Chinese term translates literally “advertising with a sheep’s head, but actually selling the dog meat.” It is often used to describe the bait-and-switch tactic when someone tries to sell inferior or substandard stuff in the name of quality products.

放倒钩
booby trap
A “reverse hook”, as the Chinese term means, is dangerous for unsuspicious prey, because it’s easy to swallow, but hard to spit out. In a recent case in the city, an official pretended to be a hitchhiker and offered driver a 10-yuan bill as a thank-you token at the end of the ride. But when the driver took the money, the official flashed his ID and pressed charges against the driver for “illegal carpooling”.

袋鼠军团
socceroos
The Chinese term means “troops of kangaroos” literally. It’s the nickname of the Australian national soccer team.

封口费
gag fee
This is the price you pay to stop people with inside knowledge from talking about what they know. It can be paid in money, dinners or presents.

飞特族
freeters
It is a combination of English word “free” and the German word “arbeiter”, which means worker. It refers to those who work only when they feel they need some money. They have a working time more flexible than freelancers. Usually freeters work part-time in IT, advertising or other media outlets and most of them are well-known in their field of career.

淑商
gentlewoman quotient
Modern men prefer a woman to have more merits than just being gentle and having good manners. The ideal women should also be well-educated, funny, psychologically and economically independent, among others. However, the question is how many men deserve a lady of such a high gentlewoman quotient.

脑子进水
bubble brain
If water is injected into the brain, as this Chinese term reads verbatim, it won’t be able to work very well. This term is commonly used these days to mean someone who is being stupid or confused.


和谐
harmony
According to the following formula:
和：禾+口，人人有饭吃
grain + mouth, everyone has enough to eat
谐：言+皆，人人能说话
speech + all, everyone is able to speak
NPC and CPPCC sessions have brought forward a new concept of 'Socialistic Harmonious Society' trying to creat a society in which people live peacefully in a new era.
"A harmonious society should feature democracy, the rule of law, equity, justice, sincerity, amity and vitality," the President of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Hu said.
毒枭
drug lord
Liu Zhaohua, an alleged drug lord, went on trial for masterminding the production of more than 18 tons of methamphetamines on June 26, the International Anti-Drug Day, in Guangzhou, while five major narcotics dealers were executed on the same day.

饭搭子
meal pal
This term refers to office workers who lunch together. Many white-collar workers are seeking lunch pals via the Internet to share high prices as well as the delicious dishes in nearby restaurants.

雪藏
stash, freeze
This Chinese term means literally to bury something in snow. It often refers to the tactic of benching a team’s top players in order to conceal its strength and save them for future, bigger battles. But it may also describe the situation when singers and movie stars are pulled out of the spotlight by their employers.

掐尖
take the cream
People these days use the term to refer to the practice of some of the nation’s top universities which have the privilege to enroll the best high-school graduates from across the country before others. The Chinese term means literally to nip off the top of a plant’s stem or branch.

奔奔族
rushing clan
It refers to those people between 20-30 years old born into a common family who are highly dependent on the Internet for social life but highly independent in thinking, highly pressed by financial burdens but highly likely to become a “card slave” or “house slave”.

拉风
cool, eye-catching
The word, which literally means draw the wind, is believed to have come from a line in a Hong Kong-made movie starring Stephen Chow. Today’s trendy people use it to refer to anything that is cool, original, outstanding, posh, or sexy.

医闹
medical dispute profiteer
Some people nose around for medical disputes and encourage the patient to file a lawsuit against the hospital. They hire more people to pretend to be the relatives of the patient during the legal procedure and claim part of the damage awarded.

原生态艺术家
indigenous artiste
This term refers to those rural artists or rather farmers whose performances are rooted in their daily life, without any artificial polish or professional background. Through generations, they have retained the most indigenous elements
哑巴亏
take it on the chin
The Chinese term, “a dumb man’s loss,” refers to someone who suffers losses or grievances but is forced to keep it quiet, or stay “speechless,” because of existing circumstances.

穿帮
blow one’s cover
The colloquial expression refers to a trick involving two or more frauds that bombs when one of them takes a misstep. The Chinese term means literally that toes are exposed as soon as the upper of shoes is worn out.

百搭
all-matching, joker, Jack of all traders
If a piece of clothing or accessory goes easily with other clothing of any color or style or an electronics part or device is compatible with all other parts or devices needed for a complete set it is an all-matching case. The phrase also means “joker” in a card game that can be used to trump or substitute any other cards.

灰镜头
seamy picture
Hui means dirt or grey in Chinese, and jingtou means lens. Pictures taken when the lens is blurred with dirt are considered a disaster. People now use this expression to refer to anything that causes the majority of the public to frown.

盘点
elaboration, rundown
It originally means stock counting. But now the term is widely used in the media to mean to cover a certain topic in an exhaustive way or to summarize the overall developments.

脚底摸油
cut and run
The term literally means “to apply oil to the soles of one’s feet” so one can retreat expeditiously. It is commonly used to describe someone who leaves the scene suddenly to avoid difficulties or trouble.

铁头功
head butt
France captain Zinedine Zidane was redcarded in the 110th minute of the World Cup final for head butting Italy defender Marco Materazzi in the chest. Zidane claimed that he was provoked because Materazzi insulted his mother and sister.

双规
double-designation
This term means a special investigation scheme of the Communist Party of China when a member or official of the Party is ordered to make explanation or confession about his/her alleged involvement in a discipline-violation or corruption case at a designated time and in a designated place.

高考状元
college entrance exam ace
This word means the top scorers in college entrance exams. Such cream of the crop is usually taken away by top universities in the country.


高薪跳蚤
high-salary job hopper
This Chinese term means literally a “high-salary flea.” Since a flea can “hop” very “high” considering its small body, the term is actually used to describe highly paid job hoppers.

审美疲劳
aesthetically blase
Because of frequent exposure to or indulgence in something beautiful, one may gradually become less excited or even uninterested. Chinese director Feng Xiaogang’s hit movie “Cell Phone” has helped the expression gain popularity on the Chinese mainland.

口水战
saliva war
People these days refer to the endless rounds of published criticism and counterattacks between two persons or groups as a saliva war.

威客
witkey
The term refers to Websites which provide online Encyclopedia services, such as Google answer, Wikipidia, Sinai ask. In China, witkey Websites are still new. With only a year of development, the number of users has reached about 600,000, with a monthly surge of 30 percent.

吃软饭
gigolo
It is a deprecating expression to refer to a man who depends on his girlfriend or wife for a living. The Chinese phrase literally translates as “eating soft rice.”

城中村
shantytown
A recent residential collapse in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, that killed four people raised concerns about the safety of residents in dilapidated and illegally built houses in urban areas.


流氓软件
malicious software
Malicious software refers to viruses, trojans, worms, spyware, and similar threats, which may provide you some unnecessary information or functions or steal useful data from your computer. Most of them are hard to remove.

兔爸
tool bar
The term literally means “rabbit papa,” because it has a similar Chinese pronunciation with “tool bar”-a bar of useful buttons usually at the top or on the left side of the interface of a software.

联体别墅
townhouse
China’s recent ban on approving land for villas has pushed some developers to seek loopholes in the new rules by building townhouses.

假跳
tell a lie
The term, literally meaning “false jump,” originally comes from “PK: Police and Killer,” a role-playing game popular among white-collar workers and college students. When the “policeman” deliberately mistakes a civilian for the killer, he is “false jumping,” or in other words, telling a lie.

电老鼠
electricity rat
Those who steal electricity are called electricity rats. In the summer some residents and business owners steal electricity by tampering with their meters. They avoid paying high electricity tariffs by lowering the meter readings significantly.

哈证族
certificate maniac
Many job-seeking youngsters, like graduating college students, devote their time to preparing for exams that award an array of certificates proving their language and computer skills in the hope of securing an edge over other applicants in the job market.

冻卵胎儿
snowflake baby
This term refers to an infant born from a frozen embryo. China’s first snowflake baby was born in Beijing in April. US President George W. Bush has banned the use of frozen embryos in scientific research.

软骨症
“soft bone” syndrome
This refers to the phenomenon of some authorities conniving at malpractice by their subordinates after taking bribes from them.

娘娘腔
sissy, pansy
The English phrase originally refers to a weak man or a homosexual. People in Shanghai use the Chinese phrase to describe boys or men who talk or behave in an effeminate way.

净足风暴
football purging storm
The term refers to the judicial intervention in the match-fixing scandal centered on Juventus, one of Italy’s football giants. The first half of the Chinese phrase means “make the football clean.”

收官
draw to a close
People have borrowed the term from the Chinese game “go” to refer to an event that is coming to an end or conclusion.

藏镜人
string puller
A person who makes use of others to reach his or her own purpose, without being identified as the person behind it all.

七夕
Qi Xi Festival
It’s the seventh day of the seventh month in the Chinese lunar calendar. Chinese legend says farmer Niu Lang and his wife Zhi Nu, who is actually an angel from heaven, are allowed to meet once a year on the day after their secret marriage is discovered by her heavenly family.

香蕉人
banana
This term refers to the overseas Chinese who are born abroad and grow up in foreign and particularly Western countries. They have Asian looks, but are totally Westernized in thinking and life style.

房奴
Housing slave is a new expression translated from fangnu in Chinese pinyin. People in this category can barely maintain a decent standard of living although they may have big apartments in downtown urban areas

花样美男
androgynous man
The on-going “Cheer Up, Good Man” TV singing contest brings us a fresh notion of androgynous beauty. This term refers to those boys or men who are nice looking (especially with feminine features), who wear long hair and act with less-masculine characters.

吃药
screw up someone
It means more than the literal definition of taking a medication in colloquial conversation. It refers to the act of using a trick to make someone look embarrassed or get into trouble.


阶梯计价
volumetric pricing
Volumetric pricing is a tiered pricing system used in Tokyo and 12 Chinese cities including Nanjing and Shenzhen. It charges heavy users higher fees compared to light users, which encourages conservation.

发福
grow stout
Chinese believe that middle-aged people putting on some weight is a sign of well-being. The Chinese character “fu” means felicity, and the term “fafu” is a propitious saying of gaining weight.

换房旅游
home-swap travel
Exchange houses with the people who want to spend their vacation in your city and have a cheap holiday in theirs. This way you can collect great local insider tips and the money saved on hotels can be used to extend your stay abroad.

注水剧
soaked soap
These days many soap opera producers are accused of dragging out a plot into an unreasonable length in order to sell the series for a higher price to TV stations.

女猪
heroine, female protagonist
“pig” and “protagonist” have similar pronunciations in Chinese except for their tones, so do not mistake the term for “female pig” next time you see it online – it is actually a trendy way of saying heroine among the literature fans on the Internet.

戏霸
despot actor/actress
It is a term to describe some big-name actors or actresses who throw their weight around and look down their noses at film directors and other performers and often demand unreasonable treatment.

抢注
preemptive registration
When the name of a celebrity or a famous organization is used for a brand name like “Clinton” condom and “bushi (Bush)” diaper, an original advertising effect is secured. A Chinese condom factory’s application states television is still awaiting the go-ahead.

顶风
storm confronting
It refers to the violation of a freshly enforced law or regulation. 顶风literally means against the wind. Chinese people tend to refer to a newly launched drive to crack down on a malpractice as a storm, like the recent ban on TV commercials promoting weight loss, breast augmentation and medical equipment.

零口供
zero confession
For a long time after new China was founded, court authorities refrained from convicting a defendant who didn’t confess to a crime he or she was charged with. However, in recent years, when they feel the evidence is sufficient, they will go ahead with the ruling without the defendant’s confession.

闪客
flash mob, flash artist
These people are “gathered” through the Internet. They perform a specific task in an assigned place at an assigned time. After that they just disappear. The Chinese term also refers to those animation artists using flash software.

养眼
eye-candy
This term is an expression used to describe something or someone that is very pleasant to the eyes, including a movie or computer game with incredible graphics and visual effects or a young woman with a very pretty face and attractive figure.

硬伤
inherent problem, glaring mistake
It means an unsolved inherent drawback that undermines an organization, a system, a relationship or a person’s integrity. It also refers to those glaring blunders that should be avoided in an artwork, such as misquoted words in a film.

吃空饷
ghost payroll scheme
Chinese media spotlighted a scandal a few days ago that an Inner Mongolia human resource official used her position to allocate her 14-year-old daughter a job, which caused an embezzlement of three years of salary by misrepresenting the payroll.

苦肉计
play pain card, no-pain-no-gain scheme, smoke screen
It was originally a Chinese military strategy used to put a general in the enemy’s confidence by beating him up in public to show he had been purged. These days, people mean it to be a scheme to win eventual success by undergoing hardships or widespread reforms first.

老爷车
jalopy, antique car
The Chinese word refers to both an old, dilapidated vehicle and those classic automobiles well worth collection. The 41 cars from Hamburg arriving in the city early this month fall into the second type.

脏话衫
clothing with expletives
Clothes printed with English, Japanese and Korean expletives are popular among local children, especially middle-school students. They think “It’s not nice to say these words, but it’s cool to wear them.” However, their fashion interest at present has worried parents, some of whom even use dictionaries to vet their children’s wardrobes.

零团费
zero inclusive fee
This term refers to a sales promotion widely used by travel agencies, which attract tourists to attend their package tour by paying only a small amount of money, which usually includes air tickets, admission to scenic sites and some other fees. However, those travel agencies will earn profits from tourists by guiding them to buy some worthless but very expensive souvenirs and jewelry in local stores.

花样美男
androgynous man
The on-going “Cheer Up, Good Man” TV singing contest brings us a fresh notion of androgynous beauty. This term refers to those boys or men who are nice looking (especially with feminine features), who wear long hair and act with less-masculine characters.

清凉装
revealing clothing
It refers to women’s summer wear that reveals a lot of skin. However, these days, people have expanded its meaning to any moderately sexy clothing.

搅局
spoil the party
Action movie star Jackie Chan recently created a disturbance in real life by exchanging insults with the audience when he appeared as a guest singer at Taiwan singer-songwriter Jonathan Lee’s concert in Hong Kong.

装嫩族
grups
Grups refers to people who are in their 30s or 40s but act like they’re in their 20s. They have been credited with killing off the generation gap as they redefine age. This word originated from a New York magazine that described a “Star Trek” episode featuring a planet run by wild children trapped in perpetual youth. The children call “Captain Kirk” and his crew grups, short for grown-ups.

职业舞伴
taxi dancer
Paramount, one of the oldest entertainment venues in Shanghai, began recruiting professional “taxi dancers” recently, to dance with guests and guide them.


发福
grow stout
Chinese believe that middle-aged people putting on some weight is a sign of well-being. The Chinese character “fu” means felicity, and the term “fafu” is a propitious saying of gaining weight.

地沟油
hogwash oil
Oil retrieved from eatery offal and grease in sewers may be used for individual purposes. But illegal peddlers sometimes sell it as edible oil, causing grave concern among consumers. A city in Zhejiang province recently raided an edible oil plant and seized 16,500 kilograms of hogwash oil.

淑女学堂
finishing school
This refers to some newly established schools specializing in teaching girls and women traditional ladylike manners, including playing lute, Chinese painting and writing poems.


摸石头过河
improvise by trial-and-error
The Chinese phrase translates literally “crossing a river by feeling the stones at the bottom of it.” Now it is often used to describe the approach of moving ahead in an uncharted territory by groping along and improvising.

城管
urban management official
Urban management officials are supposed to keep illegal vendors off the street, among other jobs. Some officials in Shanghai have been equipped with safety equipment, including anti-puncture vests and steel helmets, to guard against possible violent violators.

存款准备金
reserve requirement
The term means the proportion of deposits a bank, by law, must keep in cash or place with the central bank. It is an important tool for monetary policy, as a higher reserve requirement means fewer funds are available to a bank for lending purposes. The People’s Bank of China, China’s central bank, raised banks’ deposit reserve ratio on August 15 by 0.5 percentage points to rein in excessive lending.

摆噱头
sales stunt, publicity stunt
This term is frequently used by people to describe the publicity tricks that a business uses to promote a product that more often than not will turn out to be expensive trash.

一条龙服务
all-in-one service package, turnkey service
The expression refers to the services a business offers a client or customer, featuring “start-to-finish” arrangements.

笼户
cage dweller
To earn more rent, some owners have partitioned their apartments into many very small rooms before renting them out. Some young people, particularly those who are single and new to the city, prefer to live in such “cages” before they decide to buy a home. They are called “cage dwellers.”

**族
bird people
In colloquial Chinese, this is not a term for creatures in science fiction, fantasy fiction or mythology. Instead, it refers to people who move their home frequently, on an average of two to three times a year, in a city like Shanghai. Their purposes are to find novel living environments, new lifestyles or to meet particular personal needs, such as sleeping in an absolutely quiet room.

耍大牌
throw around a celebrity’s hauteur
Some celebrities believe that they are entitled to demand the impossible, to abuse reporters, to act rudely to fans and to treat most people around them as inferiors.

潜规则
hidden rules
People say hidden rules are the unspoken cues that dictate behaviors and actions. But in colloquial Chinese, the term is often used with a derogatory connotation. For instance, many people believe that only by offering doctors a “red pack” (gift money wrapped in a red envelop) can they expect satisfactory medical services from them.

对台戏
rival show, challenge
The Chinese term means to put up a show next to an existing show to compete for an audience. It can also be used to describe a person or organization taking actions to challenge their rivals.

垃圾
rubbish
This term translates literally “garbage” or “trash.” But when it is used to refer to people or their behaviors in Shanghai dialect, it means they are despicable, contemptible or disgusting.

冒泡
bubbling
The term refers to those who issue a post in a BBS after keeping silent for a long time, just like a bubble quickly rises and then disappears.

老婆本
wedding savings
Many Chinese men save money when they begin working and the savings will be used to buy a house, home appliances and other important articles in order to marry a woman.

麦霸
microphone monopolist
This term is used by frequent patrons to a karaoke bar to describe a friend who dominates the singing party by keeping the microphone to himself or herself.

零团费
zero inclusive fee
This term refers to a sales promotion widely used by travel agencies, which attract tourists to attend their package tour by paying only a small amount of money, which usually includes air tickets, admission to scenic sites and some other fees. However, those travel agencies will earn profits from tourists by guiding them to buy some worthless but very expensive souvenirs and jewelry in local stores.

混枪势
muddle through
In Shanghai dialect, this expression is a form of pidgin that combines the Chinese word, 混, which means to muddle along, and the transliteration of the English word “chance.”

轧闹猛
follow suit en masse
This popular phrase in Shanghai dialect reflects the fact that many locals love to follow fashion trends, ride the bandwagon, do what most people do and go where most go.

奥特曼
out man
The expression is a transliteration from “Ultraman,” a hero in an animated TV series. But these days, many people use it as a transliteration for the English words “out man” to describe “out-dated rubes.”

糍饭糕
wacky, irritating girl
The expression, which literally means a kind of traditional Chinese snack made of sticky rice, is a play on the three Chinese characters in the phrase, meaning someone who is wacky, irritating and pesky. It usually refers to girls.

月抛型
monthly dumper
This refers to people who change their dating partners frequently. It borrows its meaning from contact lenses that are tossed after one month’s use.

万金油
jack of all trades
Originally, this was the name of a palm ointment used in traditional medicine to treat many minor problems. But it can never cure any real illness. Therefore, people use it to refer to someone regarded as a jack of all trades.

玉米虫
cybersquatter
The term, which means “corn worm” in Chinese, refers to cybersquatters who register, traffick in or use a domain name that’s the same as or similar to a famous trademark, company or individuals’ names. They then offer to sell the domain names at an inflated price.

立军令状
make a sworn pledge
This is a very popular Chinese term that derives from a centuries-old practice in the military when someone makes a written pledge to carry out a mission, the failure of which will subject him to military punishment. Now, people use it to mean making a sworn pledge to accomplish something.

实话实说
talking straight, plain speaking
This Chinese phrase has become very popular partly due to a well-like namesake TV program on China Central Television. Nowadays, people often quote this phrase when they prepare to shoot straight.

呼死你
phone number jamming
“Call you to death,” as this term means literally, refers to a special tactic employed by some city inspectors to deal with illegal ads posted on walls or telecomm poles. The city inspectors record and type the phone numbers on those ads into a special voice mail system, which automatically call those numbers around the clock. As a result, those phones have to be turned off or suspended.

牛皮癣
nagging problem, eyesore ads
The term for a skin disease, psoriasis, is often used to describe a prolonged nagging problem. It may also be used to depict the eyesore ads, such as illicit trashy ads posted or printed on walls, telecomm poles, door steps or even pavements, which are very difficult to get rid of.

虚火
inflated price, superficial glory
“Hyperactivity of the fire,” or “false fire” as translated literally, is the term for an illness in traditional Chinese medicine with a symptom of a dry tongue. But the Chinese word “fire” in this sense can also mean “glory” or “popularity” or “high price.” If you believe some products are sold at inflated prices, you may say those products are having “false fire.”

钟点房
hour-rate room, love hotel
More and more “love hotels” have mushroomed around universities in the city. These hotel rooms are usually priced by the hour. Such hotels are often patronized by students. There’s also another kind of hour-rate hotel rooms in airports, which are designed for passengers who have to wait several hours between two flights.

甩手掌柜
hands-off manager
The phrase refers to owners or managers who don’t actively participate in their business, instead letting others take care of the daily chores for them. The term may also be used to describe “do-nothing” government departments or a person who does not lift a hand at home.

硬骨头
tough job, tough guy
This term “hard bone” refers to a tough job that is hard to complete. It can also be used to describe people who are tough, hard to beat and unwilling to surrender.

讨债人
debt collector
Six Shanghainese recently obtained debt-collection certificates after taking courses at a professional training center. The center is authorized by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security to train debt collectors in six fields, including state regulations and negotiation skills.

吃瘪
eat humble pie, eat boiled crow
This is a widely used term in the Shanghai dialect, which means to be forced to accept a defeat resentfully or admit one’s faults in humiliating circumstances because the parents were indebted to someone in their previous life.

打铁
write a post
It refers to Netizens’ comparing an article, especially one worth reading. The phrase translates literally “iron forgoing,” which sounds the same as “writing a post” in Chinese.

吃素的
pushover, sucker, basket case
The term usually is used to call anyone who is a vegetarian. But in colloquial Chinese, it may also refer to someone who’s an easy target or easy prey or who’s weak and useless.

肮三
indecent, wicked, problematic
Originally, this was Pidgin English meaning “on sale” in Shanghai dialect. Then it was used to depict substandard or bad quality products. Now, it is often used to describe a person or his/her behavior that is immoral or highly offensive and obnoxious. It may also be used to talk about a bad situation.

存款准备金
reserve requirement
The term means the proportion of deposits a bank, by law, must keep in cash or place with the central bank. It is an important tool for monetary policy, as a higher reserve requirement means fewer funds are available to a bank for lending purposes. The People’s Bank of China, China’s central bank, raised banks’ deposit reserve ratio on August 15 by 0.5 percentage points to rein in excessive lending.

流氓软件
rogue software
This is a kind of software that uses malware or malicious tools to advertise or instill itself on a computer. It can appear in the forms of adware, spyware, track ware, browser hijack and malicious shareware. Rogue software programs are usually very hard to remove.

死机
stunned, dumbfounded
Netizens borrow the Chinese term for an unexpected computer shutdown to refer to the state when people are too stupefied by an occurrence to respond.

窝边草
nest-side grass
A rabbit would not eat grass around its nest, ad an old Chinese saying goes. The traditional adage advises people never to harm their neighbors if they want to go a long way.

喇叭腔
bungle, screw up
In Shanghai dialect, when people talk about “bungle tune,” they actually mean something’s botched up. This is because Shanghai locals believe the bungle tune sounds like saying “going wrong, going wrong’ in their parlance.

扎台型
be showy, act dashingly
When some people feel too good about themselves and go to the lengths to show it off in front of others, they are “acting dashing.” This is a Pidgin English term in Shanghai dialect which borrows the English words “dashing.”

福袋
lucky bag
Lucky bag is a promotion method used by shopping malls. The malls sell several products in a bag, with different combinations, to shoppers at fixed price. The price is lower than the combined retail price of the products in the bag.

大起大落
boom and bust
Companies that pursue short-term profits without a vision for sustainable development tend to face drastic fluctuation in their performance. The Chinese government is moderating its economic policies to avoid a “boom-and-bust” in the country’s micro-economy.

小人书
picture storybook
Books contain pictures matched with word, which are popular among children because they are easy to understand. Many classic editions have become very expensive now.

黑嘴
black mouth
It refers to all people who brag shamelessly in order to treat. For example, stock commentators who brag they can always beat the market are dubbed “black mouth”.

夜店
nightclub
The Chinese term derived from Taiwanese parlance. The term literally means “night shop.”

生活作风问题
unethical lifestyle, loose morals
In corruption cases, more often than not the perpetrators are charged with having a “lifestyle problem,” a euphemism for loose morals, especially in their sex lives. An unethical lifestyle is one of the reasons cited in a Communist Party document for the recent sacking of Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Liangyu.

海漂
Shanghai drifters
Young white-collar workers from other provinces who pursue their career dreams in Shanghai are called Shanghai drifters. They live in a rented residence and change jobs frequently.

捧车族
car grooms
Some young car owners refrain from using their vehicles whenever a bicycle will do or public transport works just as well. They make the best use of their car rather than abusing them.

脑体倒挂
limbs before brains
The phrase refers to the phenomenon that some talent-intensive jobs such as researchers are paid less than labor-intensive ones such as meter readers when industries are not market-oriented.

打水漂
down the drain, a wasted effort
The term literally means playing ducks and drakes, or skipping stones along the water. But when it is used figuratively, it means that money and effort a person spent has been totally wasted and can’t be recovered, just like the stones in the children’s game.

笑场
laugh-out-loud, LOL
A widespread online phrase, whose abbreviation is LOL, mainly refers to a movie scene that was designed to win people’s sympathy but instead generates a laugh.

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