Chinese neologisms: part 3
Active users have shown keen interest in this series and its continuation. Many thanks to everyone who responded: your support inspires and motivates me, helping me find the energy and time to keep working! In this article I will try to establish a new format for all my future pieces on new Chinese words.
邦金妆 (банцзиньчжуан): a women’s clothing and makeup style characterized by abundant gold tones.
装嫩族 (чжуаннэнь цзу): people trying to look younger (used for middle-aged people whose speech, behavior, clothing and other expressions of individuality adopt features of a more «tender age», hence the character «嫩» («tender»); English meaning: grups (from grown-ups)).
脏话衫 (цзанхуа шань): a T-shirt with obscenities (an item in the wardrobe of a modern young urban Chinese person who follows fashion, cares about appearance and wants to attract maximum attention, regardless of cost or moral image).
孕味摄影 (юньвэй шэин): pregnancy photographs (a popular hobby among young professional families; English meaning: pregnancy photography).
月光族 (юегуан цзу): people who spend all their monthly income without saving (The compiler of the Chinese neologism collection from which I publish translated Russian excerpts gives the English meaning “moonlight people”, which means something like “people of sunlight”. I cannot agree with this wording, since here «月» denotes a calendar month rather than a celestial body, and «光» is unquestionably used to mean «empty, completely», not «light»).
洋腐败 (ян фубай): overseas bribery, a foreign bribe (the word appeared after high-profile scandals dubbed «Walmart gifts», «Depot kickbacks», «the Siemens bribery scandal», «Carrefour’s hidden rules» and others involving multinationals seeking easier access to the Chinese market by bribing local officials; English: foreign corruption).
烟熏妆 (яньсюн чжуан): smoky makeup (a style used extensively by, among others, singer Avril Lavigne; English: smokey-eye make-up).
亚偷情 (ятоуцин): semi-secret love (a relationship style among modern Chinese youth involving a long romantic relationship without sex; English meaning (not very apt in my view, but I could not think of anything better): semi-affair).
雅贼 (яцзэй): an elegant thief (more correctly and precisely, a plagiarist; “elegant” refers not to appearance but to what is stolen—something from the «fine arts», meaning art or literature. It can also describe someone who copies another’s look to be at the height of fashion. Russian pop music inevitably comes to mind...).
心理婚检 (синьли хуньцзянь): a marital psychological test (a test of psychological compatibility for people preparing to marry, who cohabit to decide, based on living together, whether they would be compatible in a future official marriage; English meaning: pre-marriage psychological test).
香菇女 (сянгу нюй): a mushroom woman (a phrase with rich associations: on the one hand, it is a homophone of «香孤女» (popular single woman), describing single women who have achieved considerable public recognition; on the other, it is synonymous with «干物女», meaning «dried-up woman», describing increasingly common young professional women who sacrifice their feminine calling first for study and then for a career, eventually becoming «cold fish» and «impenetrable office ladies»).
洗工龄 (си гунлин): washing out older workers (the staffing policy of a growing number of Chinese companies seeking to replace older workers with cheaper young employees who are easy to train and diligent; English meaning: seniority-cutting scheme).
文化低保 (вэньхуа дибао): a guaranteed minimum educational standard (a concept originating in the «Outline of the National Cultural Development Plan for the Eleventh Five-Year Plan», published in September 2007. It outlines cultural and educational development and sets the goal of providing low-income groups with a minimum level of education and boosting the people’s morale).
食膏族 (шигаоцзу): ointment enthusiasts (a collective name for young professionals and extremely busy people unable to exercise who therefore take an interest in Chinese medicinal tonics, sometimes, as is common among the Chinese, carrying that interest first to excess and then to absurdity; English meaning: tonic lovers).
申吉 (шэньцзи), short for: applying for an entry in «Guinness World Records».
求学房 (цю сюефан): choosing housing near a good school for one’s child (choosing a new home to move closer to an elite school. The desire to give children a good education is a notable feature of modern urban life, not just in China. Its «Chinese specificity» is that people often sacrifice housing comfort, proximity to work and other advantages to live near an elite institution or simply one with a good reputation; English meaning: elite school housing).