海派清口 (hai3 pai4 qing1 kou3)
Shanghai-style stand-up
Shanghai-born stand-up comedian Zhou Libo made his unique one-man performance a huge success. Armed with wit, humor and knowledge, Zhou comments on many aspects of the city life, past and present, in a farcical manner. The show is performed mostly in Shanghai dialect.

放心债 (fang4 xin1 zhai4)
safe bonds
It refers to US treasury bonds which China holds. Some US officials have been trying to convince the Chinese government that these bonds will not depreciate despite the current economic downturn and a decline in dollar value.

逆商 (ni4 shang1)
adversity quotient
It is the capability of a person to stand firm against setbacks and pull through hard times. A person with a high AQ is able to survive a career crisis.

窜货 (cuan4 huo4)
goods trafficking
It refers to the illegal practice of a retailer buying commodities from an agent elsewhere at a price lower than the local level, then undersell his or her competitors to force them out of the local market.

萌文化 (meng2 wen2 hua4)
manga-girl culture
Japanese manga is never short of cute young girls who can never fail to woo their fans. As a result, products like clothing and accessories that feature girlish designs have become popular with such fans. Teenagers will dress the way toddlers do, while 30-or 40-somethings will dress the way teenagers do, and so on.

残的 (can2 di1)
wheelchair taxi
In Shanghai, a small number of disabled people use battery-powered tricycles as a taxi to earn extra income. But the practice is deemed illegal by traffic police.

克莱登大学 (ke4 lai2 deng1 da4 xue2)
diploma mill
Chinese writer Qian Zhongshu creates a "Carleton University" in his novel "Fortress Besieged," from which the novel's heroine bought a fake PhD paper. The word is now coined by Chinese these days to mean an illegitimate academic institution.

大头症 (da4 tou2 zheng4)
swelling ego
The word, which literally means "big head disease," is applied to those rapidly rising showbiz stars and officials who then turn snobbish and look down on others.

人际泡沫 (ren2 ji4 pao4 mo4)
interpersonal bubble
Refers to getting a bunch of name cards every day only to find you are unfamiliar with most of the people or the hundreds of buddies lining up on your MSN or Facebook but you chat with few of them. It is quite often nowadays that a person with a lonely heart is surrounded by a "social bubble. "

绿坝 (lv4 ba4)
Green Dam Youth Escort
This anti-porn software is mandatory to be either pre-installed or provided on a compact disc for all personal computers sold on China’s mainland, including those imported from abroad, under a directive from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, taking effect on July 1, 2009.

双失青年 (shuang1 shi1 qing1 nian2)
double-loss youth
It refers to youth who lose both their job and lover almost at the same time. Under the current global financial crisis, many young people get dumped by lovers after losing their job because they refuse to maintain an unemployed boyfriend or girlfriend.

晒黑族 (shai4 hei1 zu2）
dark-side exposers
This term refers to a group of people who expose the dark side of society by warning the public and calling for social justice over infringement of consumer rights.

硬盘人 (ying4 pan2 ren2)
out-of-towner
The Chinese expression used in online chat rooms refers to those who come from outside a certain city. It literally means a "hard disc person," as the initials for the pinyin of 外地, meaning out-of-town in English, is WD, the same as the initials for Western Digital, a brand of hard disc.

拼亲 (pin1 qin1)
blind-date pooling
In recent years, it has become a popular practice for young singles in large Chinese cities like Shanghai to take part in a variety of social activities designed for blind dating.

豆芽型 (dou4 ya2 xing2)
frail build
It refers to those youngsters, especially male, who are unduly thin and weak. The Chinese expression is coined for their resemblance to bean sprouts that are typically thin and fragile.

高考房 (gao1 kao3 fang2)
exam-break room
Many parents in large Chinese cities are tending to book a room as a place for a noon break for their child during the three-day national college entrance exams. This allows them to avoid traveling between their home and the examination venue.

黑救护车 (hei1 jiu4 hu4 che1)
illegal ambulance
It refers to mini-buses which pretend to be regular ambulances. They park outside the big hospitals and offer cheap prices to relatives of patients who plan to transfer the patients to other venues. There are no first-aid facilities aboard these buses.

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扫盲帖 (sao3 mang2 tie1)
layman post
It refers to online chat room or forum articles that cater to the laymen by using rudimentary words and expressions so they can understand without difficulty.

御姐(yu4 jie3)
mature and domineering woman
It refers to women 22 to 35 years old who look mature and act domineering. The expression is believed to have been coined from the Japanese game Chanbara Beauty.

老顽童(lao3 wan2 tong2)
old baby
The expression is used in an appreciative way to refer to seniors who are young at heart and often act in a childish way either because they want to amuse others or because they take it as natural.

食游(shí yóu)
food-and-fun tour
While traveling in one's own car is now affordable for more and more Chinese, especially the young, such tours are usually not complete without trying out local delicacies.

学区房(xue2 qu1 fang2)
elite school property
As education authorities require all public schools to enrol only from neighboring communities, many parents will pay a higher price for an apartment in the vicinity of an elite school to ensure their child receives a better education. Such neighborhoods are called 学区(xue2 qu1).

欺实马(qi1 shi2 ma3)
A far-fetched excuse
The term literally means a "dishonest horse" and is pronounced like the English phrase for 70 kilometers per hour. A young man who drove above the speed limit killed a pedestrian in Hangzhou in May, but police initially insisted the car was only going 70 kilometers per hour. However, video camera footage showed the driver was traveling faster.

僵尸电脑(jiang1 shi1 dian4 nao3)
zombie computer
The term refers to computers linked to the Internet and controlled by a hacker, computer virus, or trojan horse. Such computers will be used to conduct a distributed denial-of-service attack or send junk e-mails under the order of hackers. As the computers are acting without their user's knowledge, they are referred to as zombies.

祈福笔(qi3 fu2 bi3)
lucky pen
It refers to pens that are claimed to be blessed by Confucius. Business crooks hawk these pens to high school students taking the national college entrance examinations by saying such pens bring good luck.

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邻家女孩/男孩 (lin2 jia1 nv3 hai2/nan2 hai2)
the girl or boy next door
It is often used these days to refer to celebrities or public figures who look or act so common when out of the limelight.

人肉布景板 (ren2 rou4 bu4 jing3 ban3)
human photo scene
Film stars and other showbiz icons attract considerable attention from fans, who often ask them to pose for a photo so that they can later show it to others. The celebrities have become a prop in the photo for such fans.

篱笆女 (li2 ba1 nv3)
starry-eyed woman
At a popular Website called liba, which means fence in English, some women post messages setting outrageously high standards for a future husband. The expression is used in a derogatory manner because these women don't meet their own criteria they demand in a husband.

时装偶像 (shi2 zhuang1 ou3 xiang3)
fashion icon
It refers to a well-known person who unknowingly promotes a fashion brand after he or she wears the clothing in public. The United States First Lady Michelle Obama is an excellent example.

软裁 (ruan3 cai2)
soft layoff/insidious layout
Some layoffs are done in a subtle manner. Some companies move an employee to a less important or lower pay position or send him or her on frequent business trips without covering the trip's expenses.

洗虾粉 (xi3 xia1 fen3)
crayfish wash powder
It is a washing powder, with citric acid and bleach as the main ingredients, widely used by restaurants in Shanghai to clean crayfish. The powder was banned by local authorities as it violates the country's food safety rules.

地铁剧 (di4 tie3 ju4)
Metro drama
Commuters on the city's subway system often witness mini dramas on Metro platforms and cars. The dramas are without dialogue ?just subtitles and background music.

夯 (hang1)
hot
The Chinese word means "ram”-the action of hardening earth with a heavy object. The word sounds close to the English word "hot.? media first used it when describing a popular thing or person.

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周光族 (zhou1 guang1 zu2)
weekly spend-all
Similar to, but worse than, people who spend all their monthly income well before pay day, this group spends their monthly wages within a week, sometimes because they earn too little to last through.

梦田族 (meng4 tian2 zu2)
farmland dreamer
It refers to young people who live in big cities but long for an easier life in rural areas. In Shanghai, people now can rent a small plot and hire farmers to do the planting work at an annual cost of 3,000 yuan (US$440).

网络庐舍 (wang3 luo4 lu2 she4)
Internet loser
It is a group of people with jobs who spend more than two hours on the Internet for entertainment every day, thus making no progress in their career. “Lu she?imitates the sound of loser in English.
 
富二代 (fu4 er4 dai4)
The second rich generation
The term refers to children of rich families in China who are usually born with a silver spoon. Unlike their parents making fortunes from scratch, they are entitled to inherit huge assets at birth. With strong financial backgrounds, this second generation features in media headlines for their extravagant spending on luxury cars and arrogant attitudes that annoy the public.

裸体出口 (luo3 ti3 chu1 kou3)
nude export
In order to boost exports during an economic slowdown, some Chinese toy factories have decided to export products unpainted or just semi-finished in a way to evade increasing technical demands on toy standards in the United States and Europe.

开口费 (kai1 kou3 fei4)
report money
Opposite to hush money collected by unethical journalists, report money refers to the page fees collected by magazines from article writers before publication. Some postgraduates, PhD students and college professors chose to pay the money so that they can get enough published articles to graduate or get promotion.
 
卡哇伊 (ka3 wa1 yi1)
cute, lovely
Young Netizens and faddish people tend to use the expression, a transliteration from the Japanese word kawaii, to describe anything that is lovely, agreeable or acceptable.

群殴 (qun2 ou1)
group fight
This term originally means a physical group fight. However, as job market pressure increases, college students use the term to refer to company group interviews, in which job candidates are organized into panels to discuss topics and compete with each other.

强势 (qiang2 shi4)
domineering
It refers these days to a person who is assertive and sometimes high-handed, either within a family, a company or a country.

宅购族 (zhai2 gou4 zu2)
otaku shoppers
It refers to those who stay at home during holidays and do online shopping to avoid the crowd on the streets. The Chinese expression is a spin-off from a similar Japanese term otaku (御宅族).

小巷总理(xiao3 xiang4 zong3 li3)
neighborhood mediators
The Chinese term literally means "premier of the lanes." It refers to China's grassroots cadres who mediate everything in neighborhood communities.
 
啤酒眼(pi2 jiu3 yan3)
beer goggles
When a person becomes drunk enough to find physically unattractive people beautiful, he is said to be wearing beer goggles.

傍名牌(bang4 ming2 pai2)
imitated brands
Some businesses name their products or retail outlets similarly to well-known brands to attract customers, misleading them in thinking the copycat is selling the real thing. It is also a phenomenon of the shanzhai culture.

拼盘演唱会(pin1 pan2 yan3 chang4 hui4)
mixed concert
The term “pin pan” means combo platter in Chinese and stands for a concert starring more than one (often a dozen) singer or band. Each will perform a couple of songs in what is usually a commercial or sponsored event.

秀霸 (xiu4 ba4)
runway doyen
Some top fashion models are so popular that they have to undertake whirlwind, jet-setting tours around the world to get to all the catwalks during the peak season, giving them little time to take a break.

魔鬼训练 (mo2 gui3 xun4 lian4)
hell training
It is derived from the Hell Week training at the US Navy SEALs that is known for its outrageously demanding training sessions. It has been used these days to refer to any training program that is either physically or psychologically demanding.

拆违 (chai1 wei2)
demolish illegal buildings
The Chinese term is an abbreviation of a longer phrase which means “demolishing illegal buildings.” Many urban home owners have tried to expand their living space by erecting illegal additional buildings.

波鞋 (bo1 xie2)
sneakers
The expression literally means ball shoes, as 波 is Cantonese slang for ball. The expression is very popular in Hong Kong and has come into use on the Chinese mainland.

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回头率 (hui2 tou2 lv4)
head-turning rate
An attractive woman may never fail to turn heads on the street. The more heads are turned, the more attractive a woman is deemed to be. These days this term is used to describe anything, from a trendy piece of jewelry to a luxury car, which attracts second looks.

有氧搏击操 (you2 yang3 bo2 ji1 cao1)
kickboxing
It is a type of fitness exercise popular in urban areas that combines boxing, karate, tae-kwondo and dance with strong, upbeat music.

厚黑学 (hou4 hei1 xue2)
brazen-wicked
The expression comes from a namesake book written by a Chinese man, Li Zongwu, in the early 20th century, commenting on dishonest and backdoor tricks used to climb the political ladder. These days, any ploy to gaining a career advantage featuring backdoor tricks falls into this category.

跟单货 (gen1 dan1 huo4)
knockoff products
The term refers to commodities, especially in the fashion business, that copy authentic products but use substandard material.

春困 (chun1 kun4)
vernal fatigue
Late spring and early summer is traditionally believed a time for people, especially the youngsters, to easily feel listless and sleepy.

手袋峰会 (shou3 dai4 feng1 hui4)
the Summit of Purses
The Summit of Purses refers to activities attended by first ladies of country heads when their husbands are busy in official conferences. Those so-called purse summits usually include charity events, health forums and tourism promotions.

灰记者 (hui1 ji4 zhe3)
unethical journalist
The term, which literally means a “grey reporter,” refers to unethical journalists, especially those who receive bribes and help cover up scandals. The term was created after a scandal last year in Shanxi Province in which over 60 real or fake journalists went to one of the mine disaster sites in the province asking for hush money.

省长 (sheng3 zhang3)
chief thrifty officer
The term originally means in Chinese the governor of a province but now it is also used to describe those who are extremely thrifty and even stingy as “sheng",the first character in the term, means a province but also “thrifty.”

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隐性失业 (yin3 xing4 shi1 ye4)
recessive unemployment, sub-unemployment
It is the phenomenon when workers are underpaid, given unpaid vacation and welfare packages are trimmed because of the economic downturn. It also refers to showbiz artists whose income suffers when their appearances in well-paying commercials are cut due to the crisis.

脑抽 (nao3 chou1)
brain spasm
It is a rude expression used by young Netizens to describe a person who acts or speaks in an insane way as if he or she is suffering from cerebral spasms.

A型城市 (A xing2 cheng2 shi4)
type-A metropolis
The term refers to boom cities where many people live at a fast pace and work under great pressure. The term is derived from the theory that tends to divide personalities into type A and B. Type A people are said to be arrogant and irritable, eager for quick success.

相亲消费券 (xiang1 qin1 xiao1 fei4 quan2)
blind-dating coupon
Dating agencies distribute these coupons for singles, regardless of age, profession or where they live. The coupons can be used to pay for entrance tickets to blind date parties.

救人网店 (jiu4 ren2 wang3 dian4)
online redeeming service
This term refers to newly established online services designed specifically to dissuade people from conducting illegal pyramid sales. The owner of one such service, who’s based in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, charges 10,000 yuan (US$1,464) for “redeeming” a person from the pyramid sales business.

同人社团 (tong2 ren2 she3 tuan2)
circle
The term, derived from the Japanese word “doujin,?refers to a group of people or friends who share an interest, activity, hobbies or achievements. They will recreate comics, games, music videos or radio plays without any commercial result. The term is popular among comics fans.

露脐装 (lu4 qi2 zhuang1)
bare midriff
Many young women these days like to wear midriff baring shirts, short skirts and low-slung trousers. They do so because they believe it's pretty and fashionable.

过渡引用 (guo2du2 yin3 yong3)
overquote
This term is often used by some academicians as a euphemism for plagiarizing other people's academic works. It's now also cited by some Netizens to satirize such reprehensible behavior.

普适计算 (pu3 shi4 ji4 suan4)
ubicomp
It means a computing model in which information technology is pervasively and seamlessly integrated into the objects and activities that people use in their daily lives.