汉语新词新译系列-H

回头率 (hui2 tou2 lv4) head-turning rate

An attractive woman may never fail to turn heads on the street. The more heads are turned, the more attractive a woman is deemed to be. These days this term is used to describe anything, from a trendy piece of jewelry to a luxury car, which attracts second looks.

厚黑学 (hou4 hei1 xue2) brazen-wicked

The expression comes from a namesake book written by a Chinese man, Li Zongwu, in the early 20th century, commenting on dishonest and backdoor tricks used to climb the political ladder. These days, any ploy to gaining a career advantage featuring backdoor tricks falls into this category.

灰记者 (hui1 ji4 zhe3) unethical journalist

The term, which literally means a “grey reporter”, refers to unethical journalists, especially those who receive bribes and help cover up scandals. The term was created after a scandal last year in Shanxi Province in which over 60 real or fake journalists went to one of the mine disaster sites in the province asking for hush money.

黑哨 (hei1 shao4) match-fixing referee, cheating

The term translates literally as “black whistle” and refers to calls by match-fixing referees in sports games. Now it refers to all unfair verdicts.

烘焙鸡 (hong1 bei4 ji1) home page

This term, meaning literally “baked chicken” in Chinese, is a comical transliteration used by Netizens for the English words “home page”. The pronunciation of the Chinese term is quite similar to the English phrase.

回炉 (hui2 lu2) re-education

The Chinese translates literally as “back to the furnace”, meaning “recycling”, and is now used figuratively to mean returning to college for re-education after a few years of work.

豁边 (huo1 bian1) go too far, botch up

In Shanghai dialect, this term means literally the split of seams in pants or clothes. But it is often used as a metaphor to mean mishandling, botching up or going too far. It may also mean overspending when money is involved, or failure of a plan or an agreement.

话托 (hua4 tuo1) phone fraud

Someone who appears as a sexy lady on the Internet and invites others to call her directly by a phone number. If one dials the number, he is likely to fall into a trap and be charged an exorbitant price.

奢华背包客 (she1 hua2 bei1 bao1 ke4) flashpacker

This term is derived from the words “flash” and “backpacker” to describe people who like to travel with a backpack filled with a laptop, MP3 player or other PDAs but staying in a luxury hotel.

哈中族 (ha1 zhong1 zu2) chinophile

More and more people in the world are showing an interest in Chinese elements, as seen in frequent scenes featuring items of Chinese culture like chopsticks, kung fu and qipao in foreign movies.

沪漂 (hu4 piao1) Shanghai drifter

The Chinese term literally means “floating in Shanghai”. It refers to anyone who hopes to make it in Shanghai but has yet to find a stable and satisfactory job.

亨利一族 (heng1 li4 yi1 zu2) HENRY

This term stands for “High Earner, Not Rich Yet” and refers to people with substantial income, but little wealth. For instance, people in the United States who earn about US$250,000 a year, but due to high taxes and other debts, the value of their accumulated assets hasn’t reach US$3 million yet.

海投 (hai3 tou2) resume flooding

As the job market turns grim, job hunters send their resumes in large numbers randomly to various companies in the hope of scooping a few chances of being interviewed.

贺岁片 (he4 sui4 pian1) New Year movie

“Hesuipian,” which refers to movies celebrating the New Year, often premiere between Christmas and Spring Festival. Most such movies are comedies and often have an all-star cast. Chinese director Feng Xiaogang is the most famous in this genre. Total box office revenue of movies he directed has exceeded 1 billion yuan (US$146.26 million) with his latest hit “If You Are the One.”

嘻哈包袱铺 (xī hā bāo fù pù) hip hop crosstalk society

This refers to a group of mostly amateurish crosstalk performers who have won acclaim among young audiences in Beijing recently. Almost all the performers are in their 20s and they lard their comedy talk with hot buzzwords and pungent online terms.

婚奴 (hun1 nu2) wedding slave

In some Chinese cities, especially large ones like Shanghai, quite a few young couples run into deep debt after throwing a luxurious wedding well beyond their means. So, after the marriage, the newly-weds have to slave away to pay off all the bills.

话题广告 (hua4 ti2 guang3 gao4) paid blog comment

It is a way of advertising a product among the bloggers. Paid bloggers will post comments on certain products produced by the hiring company.

“海龟” (hai3gui1) “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” (hai3dai4) “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 (han2liu2) 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.”

红色旅游 (hong2se4 lu3you2) 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.

忽悠 (hu1you1) 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 (ha1ri4 yi1zu2) 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.

海纳百川，追求卓越 (hai3na4 bai2chuan1, zhui1qiu2 zhuo2yue4) 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.

红头文件 (hong2tou2wen2jian4) 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.