Our favourite phrases of 2022

China in 2022: In 22 words and phrases

Dec 31, 2022

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And that’s a wrap!

This is our final newsletter of 2022, and the 100th Slow Chinese since I first hit publish on 7 February 2021.

Over the last 100 Saturdays we’ve explored, explained, uncovered and translated nearly 2,400 modern Chinese words, phrases, idioms, poems, and slang words. Many of them are in no textbook, and some are so new you won’t find them in a dictionary either.

In this issue, we try to capture elements of what life has been like in China this year through 22 words and phrases from our archive.

Chosen from a handful of our (and your) favourite newsletters in the last 12 months, these words narrate small parts of a much bigger story of China in 2022: How it’s changing, the struggles and tensions in people’s lives, and the injustices and opportunities they face.

The Chinese language has a high metabolism. New words and phrases are invented all the time. And we’ve uncovered lots of them.

We’ve learned new idioms which capture a particular scandalous moment;

吴李取闹 wú lǐ qǔ nào - ‘Kris Wu and Li Yifeng cause a stir’

The name of a 1990’s Hong Kong movie which now describes the abuse of women trafficked across China;

盲山道德 mángshān dàodé - Blind Mountain Morals

And the story of an uncle who now defines the grit of a generation that overcame extreme poverty and hardship to succeed.

二舅 èr jiù - Second uncle

Beyond learning new words and phrases, as we’ve followed language trends through the year patterns have emerged which helped me (and hopefully you) understand modern China a little bit better.

We’ve discovered how some historical events, people, and influences have an outsized impact on how people think and communicate today:

The fall of the Han and Qing empires. Idiomatic language of battles, defeat, death, and betrayal from more 2,000 years ago; metaphors from the fall of China’s final crumbling and corrupt empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries;
The words of Lu Xun. The 20th-century writer’s observations on ignorance, poverty, power, and the abuse of it;
Censorship. The control of the media and social media, which means people get creative with new idioms, acronyms, phrases and slang words to get their point across.

So that’s what we explore in todays newsletter.

Many of the 22 words and phrases here have appeared at least in one Slow Chinese this year, or come up when reading into multiple stories.

So they not only go some way to define China in 2022, they’re also useful!

As an extra challenge, I’ve intentionally avoided using words from hot internet and buzzwords from 2022 published last week, The China Project’s top idioms of the year, and our top 21 words of 2021.

In the podcast: Zoe comes in with Chinese audio at 32 mins 34 secs, with a longer deep dive on her thoughts on our top words of the year. It’s so interesting with lots of extra words and insights!

The Favourite Five of 2022

1. 润 rùn

run

哦，冯小刚已经润了 - Oh - Feng Xiaogang has already legged it.
Context: Sounding like the English 'run', we discussed this internet slang word in The Great escape in conversations about hundreds of workers fleeing a Foxconn (富士康 fù shì kāng) factory in Zhèngzhōu 郑州 after a COVID outbreak and lockdown.

2. 寒气 hán qì

a winter chill

逼这个业务自杀，把寒气传递下去 - Force the business unit to close itself down, spreading the cold winter chill across the company.
Background: In Winter is coming a leaked internal memo from Huawei founder, Rén Zhèngfēi 任正非, painted a bleak economic picture of China. ‘A winter chill’ became an iconic phrase capturing the mood about just how bad China’s economy has got in 2022.

3. 摆烂 bǎi làn

let things rot; things couldn’t get any worse

确实就是这么个道理，不让裁员不让降薪，那就只能破产了，大家一起摆烂一起吃低保，难道评论区的人的工作就能保住吗 - He really does have a point. If companies can’t lay people off or cut their salaries, the only other option is to go bust. We let things get to their worst, and live off a basic allowance. Will the people commenting here really be able to keep their jobs?
Background: ‘Let it rot’ was a hot word of 2022 among young people. In It’s the economy stupid Tencent Holdings founder, Pony Ma Huateng (马化腾 mǎ huà téng), sparked online debate about economic difficulties caused by zero-COVID policy.

4. 用脚投票 yòng jiǎo tóu piào

vote with your feet

富士康作为制造业的代表，员工用脚投票表明自己的态度，不要清零 - Employees of Foxconn, the symbol of China's manufacturing industry, have voted with their feet: They don't accept the Zero COVID policy of the company.
Background: We first discussed this idiom in The Great escape. Originally an American idiom. It described not only the actions of Foxconn employees escaping a factory in lockdown, but also how many young people took to the streets in November’s protests.

5. 星星之火，可以燎原 xīng xīng zhī huǒ, kě yǐ liáo yuán

a small flame can start a raging fire

矛盾不是靠打压就能根除的，星星之火终会发展成燎原之势 - Social tensions cannot simply be squashed. A small flame could turn into a raging inferno.
Background: In Eating people we followed the language used by protesters in Beijing and other cities across China. This iconic phrase, which first appeared in The Book of Documents (尚书 shàngshū) more than 2,000 years ago, was used by Máo Zédōng 毛泽东 in 1930 as he described the potential of the Red Army.

Useful words

6. 卷 juǎn

tough

被网友们称为“最卷直播间”，俞敏洪创办的东方甄选，又把直播带货玩出新高度 - Described as the toughest live-streaming studio, Yu Minhong’s Oriental Select has taken live-stream e-commerce to new heights.
Background: In Back from the Dead we explored the remarkable story of how Yú Mǐnhóng 俞敏洪, the founder of New Oriental (新东方 xīn dōng fāng), pivoted to live-streaming selling agricultural products. ‘Juǎn’ is how people characterised his persistence. The word has evolved from 内卷 nèi juǎn, involuted, meaning intense social competition.

7. 躺枪 tǎng qiāng

getting shot even when lying down; become unexpected collateral damage in a situation

华友钴业“躺枪”背后，其在镍金属业务层面与青山控股多有交集 - Behind Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt getting caught up as collateral damage, there are lots of links with Tsingshan holdings and its nickel business.
Background: In Nickel king crisis we followed the story of how a Chinese entrepreneur crashed the global nickel market. In the fall-out, many companies were ‘shot lying down’. In June this year, British brand, BOY London, was also ‘shot while lying down’ when an attacker of a group of young women was filmed wearing a BOY T-shirt.

8. 阳了 yáng le

tested positive for COVID

不少网友的心中就觉得，阳了不要紧，吃几口黄桃罐头就行 - Many internet users feel there’s no need to be worried about testing positive for COVID. Just eat some yellow peaches and you’ll be fine.
Background: In Retail therapy we learned about how people across China were coping with a new normal of having COVID.

9. 大白 dà bái

‘big white’ - covid worker (in full body hazmat suit)

我们被安排在一个候机大厅，远处是一排办理登记手续的大白 - We were directed to a waiting room. In the distance there was a line of covid support workers in hazmat suits processing registrations.
Background: In Lockdown language we followed the story of Xuē Liángquán (薛良权), a US-based Chinese lawyer who documented his surreal experience of being quarantined for three months in China. The ‘big whites’ punctuated his story from one quarantine hotel to another.

10. 折腾 zhē teng

suffer unnecessarily

这位大叔声如洪钟，已经被折腾了三个月了，家人一个也没见到 - The old man had a booming voice. He’d already been through three months of quarantine, and hadn’t seen one member of his family during that time.
Background: Also from Lockdown language, 折腾 zhē teng has to be one of my favourite Chinese words. If you had to chose one word to sum up life in China during zero COVID, it would probably be this one. It’s originally from a northern Chinese dialect.

11. 破伞 pò sǎn

break the umbrella; remove people in the system that protect criminals

唐山打人者劣迹斑斑，“扫黑破伞”除恶务尽 - The instigators of the Tangshan attack are the worse kind of people. ‘Rooting out mafia groups and those that collude with them in the system’ must be done to remove evil from society.
Background: In Going out of fashion we discussed an attack on a group of young women diners at a restaurant in Tángshān 唐山. The massive police operation which followed led to multiple arrests uncovering relationships between mafia and the police.

Three-character phrases

12. 松弛感 sōng chí gǎn

relaxed feeling

那家人完全完全没有生气，就是打了个电话叫人回来拿行李，然后让他们顺便寄个箱子，全程气氛都非常的松弛 - The family was not upset at all. They simply made a phone call, asked her to take the luggage home and courier it to their destination. They were all so relaxed throughout.
Background: In Keep calm and carry on we followed online conversations about a family who had their travel plans canceled at the last minute at an airport because their son's passport had expired. The phrase 'relaxed feeling’ now describes people who are calm in the face of such unexpected change.

13. 莫须有 mò xū yǒu

a groundless or fabricated accusation

寻衅滋事，这个罪真他妈无敌，简直就是当代莫须有 - Picking fights and starting quarrels is an unbeatable accusation. It’s like a modern version of Qin’s groundless accusation of Yue.
Background: In No kimono we followed the story of a cosplaying woman dressed in her kimono who was arrested by police. The story exploded online into a debate about the freedom to wear what you want in China. This phrase is a reference to Yuè Fēi岳飞, a Chinese military general in the Southern Song dynasty, who was put to death under a concocted charge by his own emperor, Qín Huì 秦桧. In modern Chinese it’s a metaphor for making groundless accusations against somebody.

14. 堵得慌 dǔ de huāng

feel uncomfortable or depressed about something

而更让你感觉堵得慌的是，这部电影反映的现象 - And what makes you feel even more depressed is what this movie reflects about real life.
Background: In Blind mountain morals we followed the story of a mother of eight from Xuzhou, discovered shackled by her neck and locked up in a freezing shed. ‘Feeling depressed’ was a phrase used by many observers online, describing how such a tragic situation could be allowed to happen in China.

Idioms

15. 惨不忍睹 cǎn bù rěn dǔ

too horrible to look at; terrible

在公司经营层面，新东方的业绩数据可谓“惨不忍睹” - Data on New Oriental operations looked awful.
Background: In Back from the Dead this idiom described how the performance of New Oriental’s education business was decimated by sweeping changes to education policy last year. ‘Too horrible to look at’ is also how China’s economy has been characterised this year.

16. 喝西北风 hē xī běi fēng

drink the north westerly wind; have nothing to eat

老百姓没收入就喝西北风，我们的国家怎么可能会允许那样的情况发生！- Without any income, people will not be able to survive. How can our country allow this to happen?
Background: ‘To drink the north west wind’ is a metaphor for having nothing to eat or drink. We mentioned it in two newsletters this year: It’s the economy stupid and Taking on Tencent.

17. 事与愿违 shì yǔ yuàn wéi

things didn’t turn out as expected

后天就可以出院了，但是好几次都事与愿违，今天是阴性，明天是阳性 - I would be able to leave the hospital the day after tomorrow. But on so many occasions things didn’t turn out as expected. I might test negative one day and then positive the next.
Background: In Lockdown language this phrase summed up the experience of the American lawyer caught in perpetual quarantine: ‘It didn’t go according to plan’. We also discussed this idiom in January too.

18. 寻衅滋事 xún xìn zī shì

pick fights and cause trouble

唐山市路北区某烧烤店发生涉嫌寻衅滋事、暴力殴打他人事件 - A violent assault happened at a barbecue restaurant in Lubei District, Tangshan City.
Background: ‘Picking fights and causing trouble’ is literally a ‘catch-all’ phrase. Our cos playing kimono-wearing lady in Suzhou was arrested under this charge, as were the Tangshan attackers. The idiom is often used by China’s MFA spokespeople in relation to actions of the US.

19. 人心惶惶 rénxīn huánghuáng

anxious

尤其那些35岁还没有晋升到管理层的从业者，更是人心惶惶，生怕自己被K掉，其实现在年龄限制是所有行业的潜规则 - Especially those 35 year-old employees who have not yet made it to a management position, they are even more anxious. They are scared they will be sacked. The age ceiling is an unwritten rule in all industries.
Background: In A massive wave of layoffs we learned about the career anxieties of ‘30-somethings’ in China.

Phrases

20. 精神内耗 jīng shén nèi hào

anxious state of mind

许多网友在看完视频之后表示，自己的精神内耗被二舅治好了 - After watching the video, many netizens felt much better about their own problems thanks to èr jiù‘s story.
Background: From Playing a bad hand well, when we learned about a disabled inspirational ‘second uncle’ (二舅 èr jiù). He was paralysed as a child and still managed to have a successful career as a carpenter and cabinet maker, adopt and raise a daughter amongst other things.

21. 拿着鸡毛当令箭 názhe jī máo dāng lìng jiàn

use a chicken feather as a warrant to issue an order; over-zealous implementation of laws and policies

铁皮生意，核酸生意什么时候整治？鸡毛什么时候当不了令箭，一切就好起来了 - When will iron fencing and nucleic test companies be looked at? When will these community workers stop abusing their authority? That’s when things will start to improve.
Background: In Eating people, a deep dive on the language of protests in December, a major complaint was how zero-COVID policy was implemented at a local level - going way too far.

22. 为众人抱薪者，不可冻毙于风雪 wèi zhòngrén bào xīn zhě bùkě dòng bì yú fēng xuě

we must not let those who blaze a trail for the rest of us, freeze to death on the road

当未来再次面对困境和风险时，需要更多人愿意选择正直和善良。“为众人烤面包者，不可使其冻毙于风雪” - When the next crisis comes around, we need more people to choose to stand up and do the right thing. So we must not let those who bake bread for the rest of us be punished.
Background: An adapted version of the same phrase described how a bakery faced fines from local government for providing affordable food to people under strict lockdown in Shanghai in April. In Taking on Tencent we followed online discussions about how a 25-year-old programmer, who resigned from Tencent speaking up against its overtime culture.

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