汉语新词新译系列-M

梦田族 (meng4 tian2 zu2) farmland dreamer

It refers to young people who live in big cities but long for an easier life in rural areas. In Shanghai, people now can rent a small plot and hire farmers to do the planting work at an annual cost of 3,000 yuan (US$440).

魔鬼训练 (mo2 gui3 xun4 lian4) hell training

It is derived from the Hell Week training at the US Navy SEALs that is known for its outrageously demanding training sessions. It has been used these days to refer to any training program that is either physically or psychologically demanding.

馒头门 (man2tou2men2) 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.

明日黄花 (ming2ri4huang2hua1) 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.

拇指族 (mu3zhi3zu2) 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.

面霸 (mian4ba4) 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.

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.

摩客 (mo2ke4) 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.

闷骚 (men1sao1) 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 used to describe a person’s duplicitous personality, but mostly in the eulogistic sense.

麦霸 (mai4ba4) 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.

摸我 (mo1wo3) MSN me

The first letter of MSN sounds like the Chinese word “mo” or touch. So, MSN users in China often use the term “touch me” to ask someone else to keep him or her posted via the instant online message tools.

摸石头过河 (mo1shi2tou guo4he2) 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.

冒泡 (mao4pao4) 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.

免费续杯 (mian3fei4xu4bei1) free top-up

As a popular service in China and around the world, free top-up is a useful sales promotion for restaurants, bars, cafe or tea houses to attract more customers.

名分 (mingfen) birthright, given status

The word usually refers to the status a mistress seeks from her lover or an illegitimate child seeks from her biological father. These days, people often use it to mean an official status that a person or organization deserves.

蜜运 (miyun) serious dating

When a man and a woman are dating seriously and it is likely leading to a marriage, young people tend to say the duo are in “miyun” or struck by “honey luck”. This Chinese term is coined after the term “honeymoon” because of their causality and their similar pronunciation in Chinese.

门槛精 (menkanjing) pettily shrewd

This is a colloquial expression in Shanghai and its neighboring areas to refer to a person who is good at scheming to gain petty advantages and sophisticated in trivial issues.

名嘴 (mingzui) popular TV presenter

The word literally translates as “famous mouth,” a catch word for those well-acclaimed television anchorpersons.

骂山门 (ma4shan1men2) make a fuss about nothing

The dialect commonly used in Shanghai and neighboring areas is believed to have originated from making a scene without any good reason to show anger at monks at the gate of a temple, who are generally too tolerant to offend others.

麦工 (mai4gong1) McJob

Labor authorities in the city are investigating several fast food giants on allegations of paying McJobs less than the minimum wage. Merriam-Webster Dictionary has recently adopted this slang and defined it as a low-paying job that requires little skill and provides little opportunity for advancement, to the dismay of the fast-food giant McDonald’s.

麦时尚 (mai4 shi2shang4) McFashion

Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), the largest clothing and cosmetics retailer in Sweden, will open its first store in Shanghai this week. Offering designer-looking clothes for a small budget, fashion brands like H&M and Zara are described as McFashion, as fashion has begun to resemble fast food: fast and cheap.

名人博客 (ming2ren2bo2ke4) celeblog

Many celebrities nowadays have set up their own blogs to reach out to their fans or to further extend their influence. This new term, however, means either a blog written by a celebrity or a blog devoted to a particular celebrity or to celebrity news and gossip.

密码疲劳症 (mi4ma3 pi2lao2zheng4) password fatigue

Ever-growing involvement in the Internet life often brings forward a syndrome where people are required to remember an excessive number of passwords. Such stress may cause people to take risks by lowering their guard against online identity fraud.