汉语新词新译系列-R

人才抄底 (ren2 cai2 chao1 di3)
recruit talents at bottom price

Some employers regard the global recession as a great opportunity to get high-quality professionals for a relatively low cost. Several overseas recruitment efforts have focused on overseas Chinese talents, more of whom are willing to work in China.

肉食女 (rou4 shi2 nv3)
meat-eating girl

In Japanese, it's "Nikushokukei Joshi," which means girls who are aggressive toward men in love, sex or marriage. The reason is simple: men are not approaching women nowadays.

人性化服务(ren2xing4hua4 fu2wu4)
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.

人脸识别系统 (ren2lian3shi2bie2xi4tong3)
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.

人来疯 (ren2lai2feng1)
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.

人脉 (ren2mai4)
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.

软肋 (ruan3lei4)
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.

软实力 (ruan3shi2li4)
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.

软骨症(ruan3gu3zheng4)
"soft bone" syndrome

This refers to the phenomenon of some authorities conniving at malpractice by their subordinates after taking bribes from them.

人肉布景板 (ren2 rou4 bu4 jing3 ban3)
human photo scene

Film stars and other showbiz icons attract considerable attention from fans, who often ask them to pose for a photo so that they can later show it to others. The celebrities have become a prop in the photo for such fans.

软裁 (ruan3 cai2)
soft layoff/insidious layout

Some layoffs are done in a subtle manner. Some companies move an employee to a less important or lower pay position or send him or her on frequent business trips without covering the trip's expenses.

人气  (ren2qi4)
popularity

When a place attracts a large crowd on a regular basis or is always full of activities, people say it is enjoying high popularity, or in Chinese, it is full of "human smell."

软脚蟹(ruan3jiao3xie4)
spineless, namby-pamby

Soft-legged crab, as this term literally translates, is no good because it's premature and yields little meat. It is often used to describe a person deemed a weakling.

软文广告 (ruan3wen2 guang3gao4)
advertorial

The Chinese term translates literally as "soft-article advertising." It derives from the English word "advertorial," a portmanteau of "advertising" and "editorial." Advertorial is an advertisement presented in the form of a legitimate and independent news story in a publication.

肉机(rou4ji1)
hacker-controlled computer

This term, "meat machine" as it translates literally, refers to a hacker-controlled computer which has been infected with some sort of malware.

软创新 (ruan3 chuang4xin1)
soft innovation

This term refers to innovation of macro or micro management systems. They include operation mechanisms, management, policies, organization, business model and production process.

热裤 (re4ku4)
tight pants

The word applies particularly to the tight-fitting short pants worn by young Chinese women who prefer to show off their curves, if any. Usually the pants are worn in hot weather, which may explain why the Chinese word for hot, re, is used.

惹火 (re3huo3)
inviting; hot

The expression is especially used these days by youngsters to refer to sexy and attractive dresses or ladies with curvaceous bodies.

忍者贷款 (ren3zhe3dai4kuan3)
Ninja loan

This term means a loan or mortgage given to a person who has "no income, no job, and no assets."

人肉引擎 (ren2rou4 yin3qing2)
social network-based search engine

The phrase refers to a new phenomenon on the Internet when people volunteer to dig out detailed background information about a particular person through their social networks. For example, Internet users exposed the ID number, mobile phone number and even company name of a woman who viciously attacked her husband's ex-wife in her blog.