In the unusual 2020, have you picked up some new words in Chinese? Recently, Chinese media has made their lists of Chinese buzzwords to summarize the last year. Here I picked top 10 words for you to read. Do you know all of them? Have a look!
Heroes Who Throw Themselves in Harm’s Way
逆行者refers to those who walk in the adverse direction. It is usually used to call people who put themselves in danger overcoming the difficulties. Such as Chinese doctors and nurses who travelled to Wuhan to support medical work when the novel coronavirus broke out in early 2020.
二
云监工 originally means millions of netizens watched the 24 hours live broadcast of Fire God Mountain Hospital and Thunder God Mountain Hospital being built and acted as online supervisor. Now it generally means monitoring the progress of work remotely through network.
三
Health Code
健康码 is a QR code generated by the government’s self-management information system. The green, yellow and red code shows your health situation under pandemic and becomes a pass for you to go anywhere for China’s epidemic prevention and control.
四
Toolman
工具人 already has its corresponding English word: anyone that lower themselves or conform others against their true beliefs just to be popular. The essence of this word is that people’s personality is materialized and lost themselves. In the contemporary context, the meaning of tool man has been generalized. Young people call themselves tool man to express their desire to get rid of the embarrassing situation.
五
“Clear Your Plate” Campaign
光盘 means eating up everything on the plate. The campaign aims to help people cultivate the habit of saving, cherishing food and opposing waste.
六
Younger generation
后浪 literally means the rear wave. It comes from the idiom “长江后浪推前浪(the Yangtze River forges ahead waves upon waves)”. Originally meaning younger generation, the current popular 后浪 refer to the post 90s, post 00s generation, or the youth groups in rich families who have superior quality of life and free choices that everyone envies.
七
Live Streaming Marketing
直播带货 is the marketing strategy done by stars, internet celebrities and internet marketers through live broadcast or video channels online. People from all walks of life join the group to help the development of regional economy.
八
Commuter & Balance Payer
打工人 often get up early and work late with meager wages but work very hard. 尾款人 are those who has paid for the deposit of goods from Double 11 online shopping promotion and wait to pay the balance. 打工人 and 尾款人 are almost the same group of people. They are a kind of black humor reflecting the strong resonance under the double pressure of competition in the work place and the burden of living.
九
The First Cup of Milk Tea in Autumn
The phrase means that when autumn comes, lovers, friends or family members send red pocket through Wechat or Alipay in the name of drinking milk tea to express their intimate feelings. The number in the red pocket is usually RMB 52.0, homophonic to “wǒ ài nǐ (I love you)”.
十
Happen to Coincide
This Chinese idiom express the meaning that everyone agrees on the opinions or actions without prior consultation. Because of the Covid-19 this year, the word has a new meaning: No face-to-face appointment or no gathering(不约) has become the common rule for everyone(而同).
Which of the words above is frequently used by you? What 10 words you would like to pick for your own 2020? Hope you find it useful in learning Chinese vocabulary and look forward to new words that may come up in this year!
