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Elon Musk is like an entrepreneurial god in China, or at the very least a super hero one.
He’s known as Iron Man 钢铁侠 gāng tiě xiá in Chinese.
Popular in China in a way that a Chinese equivalent probably couldn't be, Musk is loved for being an on-message, mainstream, ‘big potato’ (大咖 dà kā), and an unpredictable, off-message, anti-establishment ‘hippie’ (嬉皮 xī pí).
His popularity with fans persists even as Tesla’s PR team in China regularly deals with high profile customer complaints and consumer rights protests. Barely a week goes by without a media story about Tesla’s faulty brakes (刹车失灵 shāchē shīlíng) or other technical problems with its cars in China.
Elon Musk’s bid to take over Twitter has elevated his status even higher in China - as someone with big ideas who can make them happen.
According to one article in tech blog 36Kr this week (Musk: a real man or a joker? 马斯克，真男人还是真“逗比”？) Elon’s fans in China love him because:
他与生俱来的娱乐精神，不正经的做派让嬉皮士文化与科技狂人、商业大佬这样一本正经的标签有史以来第一次融合，在他身上得到了“滑稽”的共同呈现。
He has an innate spirit of the entertainer. His unorthodox style uniquely brings together hippie culture with conventional identities of tech madman and business leader in a ‘ridiculous’ way.
‘Hippie culture’ in Chinese means ‘anti-western establishment’, rather than its more general ‘counter-culture’ connotations in English.
This article is brimming with interesting colloquial language, idioms and insights. It flows well and is worth a read in full if you have time.
But before you do that, I’ve prepared some linguistic highlights for you to enjoy and learn. It’s an exotic mix of millennia-old Confucian teachings, modern Cantonese colloquialisms crossed over into Mandarin, American pop culture, Chinese slang, and a German philosophical phrase about fear and self-doubt.
We also get a better understanding of why Elon Musk is so popular in China.
The Favourite Five
1. 逗比 dòu bī
a funny guy, a joker
马斯克虽然逗比，但人家毕竟聪明 - Even though Musk is a joker, he is also clever.
Note: Internet slang which is a combination of the words ‘funny’ (挺逗的 tǐng dòu de), and stupid or idiot (二比 èr bī) which on its own is quite offensive, and can also have the character 逼 bī, hence the first tone pronunciation. In this phrase, though, it’s less offensive and has a positive twist of also being cute (可爱 kě'ài), or loveable.
2. 钢铁侠 gāng tiě xiá
Iron man; Elon Musk
钢铁侠更多地在表述他关于未来，关于太空，关于全人类的遐思 - Elon Musk is thinking more about the future, about space, about all mankind.
Note: a reference to Musk’s cameo appearance in Iron Man 2 in 2010; in Chinese he’s known as the Iron Man of Silicon Valley 硅谷钢铁侠 guī gǔ gāng tiě xiá.
3. 送秋波 sòng qiū bō
send autumn waves; batting eyelids or flirting with someone
向推特和可口可乐这类天然抗周期商业模式的公司递送秋波 - Flirting with companies like Twitter and Coca Cola whose business models are anti-cyclical.
4. 锱铢必较 zī zhū bì jiào
fight over the smallest trifles; argue about little details
关于推特用户数造假的消息发酵，印证了它潜在的未来所有者对于财富的锱铢必较 - News about Twitter’s fake accounts is growing, which shows that its future owner must take the numbers very seriously.
Note: traced back to a work by philosopher Xúnzi 荀子, one of China’s ‘big three’ Confucian scholars, who lived in the 3rd century BC (see classics below).
Note: 锱铢 zī zhū means a very small amount of money or a very small matter.
Final note! Similar to 斤斤计较 jīn jīn jì jiào, which means focussed on the detail, or stingy. This has negative connotations, whereas 锱铢必较 is positive.
5. 这条街最靓的仔 zhè tiáo jiē zuì liàng de zǎi
best looking boy on the street; the big kid on the block
中国的经济规模可能会是美国的两到三倍，中国会长成这个街区最靓的仔 - China will become the big kid on the block, as its economy may grow to two or three times the size of America’s.
Note: from the Internet slang: 这条街最靓的仔 zhètiáojiē zuìliàng de zǎi (the prettiest looking boy on the street). It's originally Cantonese, becoming a viral meme in 2018 when Chinese actor Hú Yītiān 胡一天 shared it with an image of himself on a street in China. This is how the Chinese media translated Musk’s comments on China in an interview with him in the Wall Street Journal in November last year.
More: this is a fantastic example of how modern language with different cultural references evolves in parallel. When it comes to crossing over between English and Chinese, the meanings are actually not that different - big kid on the block, and best looking boy on the street.
Consuming the conversation
Useful words
混子 hùn zi
someone who fools around
全世界的粉丝也热衷于看到一个奇谈怪论不按套路出牌的“大混子” - People all round the world love seeing a crazy guy who says strange things and doesn’t follow the usual norms.
Note: 不按常理出牌 bù àn cháng lǐ chū pái - means to not play cards according to the rules, which is to be unconventional, or able to think outside of the box.
暴君 bào jūn
despot
他是粉丝们的意见领袖，也是数十万下属和工人们的严厉暴君 - He is an opinion leader to his fans, and a very strict boss to over 100,000 employees who work for him.
不羁 bù jī
uninhibited; unruly
对马斯克的不羁言论，粉丝们应声而上 - Fans love Musk’s uninhibited way with words.
Note: 羁 jī is a bridle for a horse, so it can also be translated as ‘unbridled’.
心慌 xīn huāng
flustered; worried
钢铁侠估计有点心慌了，在推特发文说“如果我不明不白地死了，大家都知道是谁干的 - I reckon Musk must have been a bit concerned; on Twitter he posted saying that ‘If I die mysteriously, you will all know who did it’.
炫耀 xuàn yào
flaunt; show off
迫不及待要向自己的玩伴们炫耀一下 - Can’t wait to show off to his colleagues.
