October Review
Monthly Member Memo
Hello!
This is a memo for paid subscribers of Slow Chinese.
Around the end of each month, you’ll get a short note from me with three parts:
Month in review: Links to the newsletters from that month in case you missed them, with a mention of my favourite phrase or word.
Membership updates: What’s new with the membership product. This month, we’re launching live meet-ups.
Ask me a question: Ask for help on your language learning challenges in a discussion thread.
Please let me know what you think by replying to this email or in the comments section!
Andrew
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1. October Review
Here are this month’s newsletter issues in date order. Titles are linked to the original newsletter.
Keep calm and carry on
29 October
A new Internet phrase captures the mood in China. 'Relaxed feeling' (松弛感 sōng chí gǎn) has been discussed in the media, becoming a new phrase with which to describe people who are calm in the face of unexpected change.
A new idiom on me was 捉襟见肘 zhuō jīn jiàn zhǒu. The direct translation is ‘pull sleeve see elbows’, meaning to be hard up, or overwhelmed. It’s traced back to Zhuangzi 庄子. In modern Chinese the phrase has come to mean lacking or deficiency, in finances, time or other aspects of life.
Pleco: Click to download
Side-hustle stress
22 October
80 million people in China aged between 20 and 35 have a side-hustle or side-gig, according to 2019 data. ‘Slash Youth’, or 斜杠青年 xié gàng qīng nián, is another way to describe a young side-hustler in China.
My favourite new phrase I learned about while writing this newsletter was 人类的悲欢并不相同 rén lèi de bēi huān bìng bù xiāng tóng. It means ‘everyone’s pain is different’, and is from a Lu Xun 鲁迅 short story, 而已集 ér yǐ jí.
Pleco: Click to download
Off the sauce
15 October
China’s biggest soy sauce brand is Hǎitiān 海天. Haitian was at the centre of a social media storm during the National Day holiday week, accused of ‘double standards’ (双标 shuāng biāo).
The phrase, 海克斯科技 hǎi kè sī kē jì - Hex technology, was a new one on me. It’s a phrase which started life in the computer game, League of Legends 英雄联盟, and become a new ‘hot’ term on Chinese social media, meaning something like, food filled with additives.
Pleco: Click to download
How much!?
8 October
Two online influencers disagree on the price of sweetcorn: An online spat between Simba (辛巴 xīn bā), and Dǒng Yǔhuī 董宇辉, two of China's top live-stream sellers.
My favourite phrase in this one has got to be: 谷贱伤农 gǔ jiàn shāng nóng - low grain prices hurt farmers. This idiom first appeared in the Book of Han, a history of the Han dynasty, written more than 2,000 years ago. And in 2022 it’s being hurled from one live-stream studio to another.
Pleco: Click to download
A surprise comeback
1 October
Discussing the return of China's top live-streamer, Li Jiaqi, and how his surprise comeback shows he can still deliver big sales.
One of my favourite phrases from this issue was: 物是人非 wù shì rén fēi - things are the same but the people are different.
This idiom is from a letter by Cáo Pī 曹丕, A Letter to Wu Zhi (与吴质书 yǔ wú zhì shū) written towards the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD).
Pleco: Click to download
2. Membership Updates
New: Launching Monthly Member Meet-ups
Hosted on Zoom around the middle of the month, these live meet-ups aim to connect more directly with you, build more of a community feel, and try to help answer some of your questions about the learning challenges you face.
This month’s meet-up will be on Tuesday 15 November at 7pm UK time.
The format will be me responding to pre-submitted questions for around 30 minutes. And then 10-15 minutes at the end responding to live questions submitted in the chat box.
We will also publish the audio as a member only podcast afterwards.
If you would like to join live and submit a question, or just ask me a question to be answered during the session, please register your interest here:
3. Ask me a question
This monthly memo is also an opportunity to feedback directly on the content, ask any questions about the membership product, and share what learning challenges you’re facing at the moment.
I’ll answer directly in the comments section, and also discuss in the live session later this month.
You can ask a question by clicking through to the comments section of this post!
Thanks!
Andrew
How did the literal meaning of “very cow” (很牛) come to mean “awesome”?
Great thanks