Learning Chinese from China's top stand-up comic
The winner of stand-up comedy show Rock and Roast
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CONVERSATIONS WORTH CONSUMING
Learning Chinese from China’s top stand-up comedian
Stand-up comedy show Rock and Roast (脱口秀 - Tuōkǒu xiù) concluded last week.
Some viewers reckon this season is not as good as the last with comedians opting for less controversial topics.
Nonetheless there’s still some excellent comedy, especially helpful for language learners.
I’ve picked two sketches by Zhōu Qímò (周奇墨), this year’s winner (Youtube). His observational humour is excellent.
Useful dialect words
Here are three North-Eastern Chinese dialect words that have crossed over into mainstream use.
怼 (dui) - have a go at somebody (a bit like 骂 or 批评; correct pronunciation is fourth tone; in spoken language it’s third tone - which becomes second tone here because it’s in front of 死 ;)
要么你帮我，要么我怼死你 - either help me or all go for you
搁 (gē) - put
我这个脸就搁这儿了 - allow me to put my face here
埋汰 (máitai) - dirty, in poor taste
太埋汰了 - that joke is a bit too much
Other words you’ll need to know
You’ll need to know these words to get Zhou’s jokes:
吸猫 (xī māo) - ‘cat sniffing’ - watching cute cat videos online, or ‘inhaling’ your pet cat as a way to feel better about life
吸猫可真被治愈了 - can sniffing has really healed me
好嗑 (hǎo kē) - Internet word meaning ‘well matched’ of a couple
这个机长和空姐太好嗑了吧 - the flight attendant and the pilot are such a good match
出溜 (chūliu) - fall down, lose everything in an instant
学好不容易，学坏一出溜 - to do the right thing is hard; if you’re morally corrupt you’re in trouble
浮夸 (fúkuā) - exaggerated
在手机上这个语言，也越来越浮夸 - the language people use on their phones is more and more exaggerated
Idioms
斩钉截铁 (zhǎndīng jiétiě) - decisively, forcefully
Siri的那种傲慢，说话还说的斩钉截铁 - Siri is so arrogant, he talks as if he knows everything
司空见惯 (sīkōng jiànguàn) - commonplace
他把司空见惯的东西变成爆梗 - [Zhou] takes normal daily stuff and turns it into really great jokes
鸡毛蒜皮 (jīmáo suànpí) - trivialities
这些鸡毛蒜皮的事，我们都会讲 - we all do gags about the trivial things in life [but not as good as Zhou…]
If you want more Chinese comedy this weekend, here are two previous newsletters featuring useful slang words from Rock and Roast comedians:
Yáng Lì (杨笠) with some excellent drinking slang
Zhāng Hàozhé (张灏喆) with some classic Chinese fat jokes
WORDS OF THE WEEK
Words of the week are from the following news stories:
A discussion of the impossible challenge of RED stopping its influencers seeding posts of fake designations (36Kr)
An analysis of why Austin Li has so far topped online e-commerce sales at the start of this year’s singles Day shopping festival (36Kr).
And a Zhihu post by the authors of the shared spread sheet and the ‘Worker’s Lives Matter!’ movement (打工人也需要生活), which seems to be no longer available online :(.
Trending words
滤镜景点 (lǜ jìng jǐngdiǎn) - filtered beauty spots - fake destinations
小红书在其微信公号发文就网友关于“滤镜景点”的吐槽发表声明并道歉 - Little Red issued a statement apologising on its official Weibo account in response to complaints from Netizens about “filtered beauty spots”
踩坑 (cǎi kēng) - step in a hole; be tricked
今后将尝试推出景区评分榜、踩坑榜等产品 - from now on [Little Red] will trial products like a ranking system and a “top fakes” list for destinations
坑 (kēng) - pit, a trap, tricked
炫富 (xuàn fù) - showing off wealth
不炫富，分享经过科学论证的内容等 - do not show off wealth, and only share images that have been verified
Want to read more about getting 坑-ed? Try this earlier newsletter about local governments letting people down with badly implemented power outages.
Chinese words you should know
Here are four words to discuss two different aspects of life in China today: socially awkward people, and shopaholics.
社恐 (shè kǒng) - socially awkward, extremely shy
当代社恐青年纷纷出来认领，觉得这就是在形容自己 - when the many socially awkward youngsters admit they have a problem, [others feel like] it’s like they are describing themselves [many youngsters identify themselves as socially awkward]
社死 (shè sǐ) - extreme embarrassment after making a fool of yourself
还有很多社死现场，你又有什么奇葩的社死经历呢 - there are so many extremely embarrassing situations, which ones have you experienced?
图便宜 (tú piányi) - trying to get the best deal (tú here means ‘to scheme to’ or ‘try to’, as in túmóu 图谋)
粉丝来直播间买买买只是图便宜 - when fans enter the live-selling rooms to “buy-buy-buy”, they are simply trying to get the best possible deals.
剁手党 (duòshǒu dǎng) - ‘cut hand party’ - shopaholics
薇娅和李佳琦都准备了详细攻略，剁手党可以直接“抄作业” - Viya and Austin Li have carefully prepared a complete guide [to how shoppers can get the best deal]; the shopaholics simply do [buy] what they are shown
Want to read more about the China Chic (国潮 - Guó cháo) and Made in China (国货 - Guóhuò) phenomenon lead by Austin Li? Read this earlier issue of the newsletter featuring an interview with him.
Idioms
Every long-time learner of Chinese should maintain a regular diet of new idioms.
Here are three beautifully visual ones I discovered this week. The first two are from the now deleted Worker’s Lives Matter post on Zhihu.
曲高和寡 (qǔgāo hèguǎ) - highbrow songs find few singers; too highbrow to be popular
局限于互联网行业的 WorkingTime 必然曲高和寡 - restricting recording working times just to the internet sector will not gain traction
声势浩大 (shēngshì hàodà) - great momentum
即使是前几年声势浩大的 996.icu 运动也没有对这个现象做出多少改善 - even the hugely influential 996.icu campaign could not improve the situation [of workers working too long hours]
铲草除根 (chǎn cǎo chúgēn) - dig up the weeds and remove the roots (a more common idiom meaning the same thing is: 斩草除根 - zhǎncǎo chúgēn)
小红书也很难完全“铲草除根”，毕竟目前而言，广告变现依然是平台和博主变现的主要方式 - there’s no way Little Red can on its own totally eradicate the problem. After all, advertising is still the main source of income for the platform and for bloggers.
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