绯闻股 (fei3 wen2 gu3)
star-studded share
It refers to the Huayi Bros Media Group that was recently listed on the ChiNext, or the Chinese version of Nasdaq. The shareholders of the company are pop stars that are never short of gossip news, hence the term.

追客 (zhui1 ke4)
follower
The term refers to people who regularly refresh Web pages to follow the latest updates of online fiction serials, TV series, bloggers or podcasts. They will often feel upset over the delay or suspension of the updates.

隐形狗 (yin3 xing2 gou3)
invisible dog toy
The kuso toy, a specially designed rope invented in the 1970s, has recently come back into vogue. Many New Yorkers enjoy holding the rope, walking the non-existing dog and even pretending to tidy up the non-existing dog's poo.

群体无聊(qun2 ti3 wu2 liao2)
group boredom
The term turned into a catchphrase on the Internet. It reflected in a way the cyber culture in which young people kill their time in virtual worlds after being bored by other traditional entertainments, such as TV, radio and reading books.

走鬼(zou3 gui3)
unlicensed vendors
The Chinese term originates from Hong Kong, and literally means "walking ghosts." It refers to unlicensed street vendors who meander about to flee punishment by authorities.

刷书客 (shua1 shu1 ke4)
book scanner
The term refers to people who record extracts from a book, either in a bookstore or a library, with an electronic mini scanner without any intention to buy the book.

回流 (hui2 liu2)
backflow
The term refers to a phenomenon where many Chinese abandon their jobs and homes abroad to return to work in China at a stable job, especially in the current global financial crisis.

范儿 (fan4 er)
style
The Chinese term, popular mainly in northern China, refers to one's style --from dressing to general behavior.

跳价 (tiao4 jia4)
price hike
At first glance, the Chinese term is a bit ambiguous as it could suggest either a price hike or a price drop. But actually it means only a price hike.

窝案 (wo1 an4)
group crime
The Chinese term literally means a crime committed by a "nest" of people. It often refers to a felony such as bribe taking by a group of accomplices.

冷知识 (leng3 zhi1 shi)
trivial knowledge
It refers to rarely known, but sometimes amusing, trivial facts, like there are more chickens than humans on earth, the YKK on the zipper stands for the initials of the world’s largest zipper maker Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, 80 percent of Americans like the color blue, you can’t sneeze with your eyes open, humans shed an average of 40 pounds of skin over a lifetime, and so on. Some of the knowledge falls into the believe-it-or-not type, such as Marilyn Monroe was born with 11 toes.

虾米族 (xia1 mi3 zu2)
shrimp clan
The term is derived from a popular KFC item featuring seven intact fried shrimps between two pieces of regular bread. It triggers deep thoughts among young consumers over how to live a better life in limited space. The clan refers to those who make the most of their available resources to handle soaring housing prices and salary cuts to maintain their living standards during the global downturn.

网络劳务 (wang3 luo4 lao2 wu4)
online labor services
The virtual labor relationships mainly exist on the Internet and the services offered center around the online world. Charges vary from 5 yuan (73 US cents) to 50 yuan per hour. The part-time jobs include picture uploading, data entry and online chatting. Among the most popular jobs is taking care of virtual vegetable gardens for clients when they are on holidays and have no access to the Internet.

换草运动 (huan4 cao3 yun4 dong4)
acquaintance blind date
The term literally means “exchanging grass” with grass referring to young men. Such events are usually initiated by “leftover women” — single women who have passed the best age for getting married. These women may bring single male friends, colleagues or relatives to a get-together and expect to find their Mr Right among their counterparts’ male friends.

麻豆 (ma2 dou4)
online shop model
It refers to models who only appear on online shops. The word is a transliteration from the English word for model.

袜裤 (wa4 ku4)
treggings
A trendy fashion for women is wearing leggings and trousers together. While a close fit and flexible is the main idea, it does draw closer scrutiny to the legs of the wearer.

比婚女 (bi3 hun1 nu3)
marriage comparison woman
The term refers to women who appear zealous in comparing the size of their diamond rings, how luxurious their wedding was, as well as their houses and vehicles after they get married.

黑暗期 (hei1 an4 qi1)
star twilight/obscurity period
Most pop stars toil through a period of obscurity before they gain fame.

官二代 (guan1 er2 dai4)
the second officer generation
The term, another word popular over the Internet after “the second rich generation” and “the second poor generation,” refers to children from families of senior officials. Their privileges are based on their parents’ power or other useful networks, instead of their own accomplishments. This second generation is notorious for their domineering practices and other misdeeds that annoy the public.

闪玩 (shan3 wan2)
flash play
The term means a very short trip. A new way of traveling has become popular among young people, especially office professionals, who fly somewhere on Friday night and fly back before work on Monday morning. They also seek new companions online to extend their social network.

被当爸 (bei2 dang1 ba4)
involuntary father
The term became popular when an obscure model said she had a child with actor Jude Law, confirmed by a DNA test. Law was then “forced to be someone’s father” because the model deliberately did not use contraceptives.

裸机 (luo3 ji1)
naked machine
The term refers to computers or intelligent mobile phones without operating systems or software. Many young people who can install operating systems themselves tend to buy “naked” computers or mobile phones as they are cheaper than those with operating systems.

炒新 (chao3 xin1)
speculate on new stock issues
The first character “chao" means "speculate on," while the second character "xin" means "new." The Chinese term is an abbreviation of a longer expression which means to "speculate on new stock issues."

他衰退 (ta1 shuai1 tui4)
male recession
Because many men have lost their jobs or found their salaries slashed during the current global economic recession, this financial downturn has been dubbed humorously as the "male recession."

极客 (ji2 ke4)
geek
The Chinese term is a transliteration from the English word "geek." The Chinese term refers to a person who does not dress fashionably but is addicted to and good at computers.

姐妹淘 (jie3 mei4 tao2)
sisterhood; a woman's close girlfriends
The Chinese term comes from Taiwan and means sisterhood or the relationship between two or more women who are very good friends.

萤火虫族 (ying2 huo3 chong2 zu2)
fireflyer
The term refers to those who smoke on their balcony in the evening. From a distance these people look like fireflies in the dark.

病毒营销 (bing4 du2 ying2 xiao1)
viral marketing
Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to using social networks such as the Internet to increase brand awareness or product sales through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of computer viruses.

爱老虎油 (ai4 lao3 hu3 you2)
I love you
The Chinese word which literally means “love tiger oil” is pronounced similarly to “I love you” in English. The saying comes from a Hong Kong kung fu movie in which the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) heroine is tricked by a Western-educated lover to say the words.

动L (dong4 L)
alive
The term is prevalent throughout the Internet due to shampoo ads featuring Jackie Chan. He used it to indicate fine hair quality that is flexible and lively. Now it is widely used by Netizens to indicate alive and kicking.

肩客 (jian1 ke4)
johnkers
It is a new type of online community sales platform that links registered members only on the Internet with johnkers, or sales agents, taking commission. The sellers are mostly moonlighting office workers offering a variety of services. However, as the platform has been blamed for many fraud cases, it hasn’t been widely accepted in China.

拖尾巴 (tuo1 wei3 ba1)
spill-back
It refers to the partial or full blockage of a road crossing by cars that don’t make it through the traffic lights before they turn red. Police in Shanghai, where traffic jams are common, have started to prevent or solve such congestion.

空怒 (kong1 nu4)
air rage
Disruptive behavior on British passenger aircraft rose 30 percent last year, with alcohol playing a significant part in what the media has dubbed as “air rage.” The most common age group involved was 30-39 and incidents spanned from attacks on crew to in-flight smoking.

喵喵族 (miao1 miao1 zu2)
stray-cat caretakers
Some urban residents in big Chinese cities will offer food, whatever it is, to stray cats whenever and wherever they come across one.

魅领 (mei4 ling3)
charming white-collars
It is a newly coined expression to describe young elites in every walk of life, especially white collars, who are generally deemed to be charming in the sense of career, wealth, health and romance.

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黄金粥 (huang2 jin1 zhou1)
golden porridge
The term, “golden porridge” in its literal meaning and pronounced the same as “golden week” in Chinese, replaces the original word for the golden holidays. It originated from a namesake song of folk singer Zhou Yunpeng depicting golden week as not gold all over the ground but one bowl of porridge per person. “Golden Week” describes each of the two annual national holidays — Spring Festival in January or February and National Day in October — that cause congestion in traffic, accommodation and consumption as large crowds flock to travel.

搞手族 (gao3 shou3 zu2)
online organizer clan
The term, derived from Cantonese, refers to people who issue Website posts to organize various get-togethers such as mountain climbing, pub crawling and karaoke. Participants usually prepay while the organizer takes a cut from either the Website or the venue provider after each get-together. The monthly return can be 1,000 yuan (US$146).

乙男 (yi3 nan2)
otomen, pinky boy
The Japanese manga “Otomen” and its namesake TV drama features a boy with a secret: the things he really loves are cute dolls, cooking and sewing. The word “otomen” is a pun made of the Japanese word otome, meaning young girl, and the English word "men."

杯具 (bei1 ju4)
tragedy
The word, literally meaning cups in Chinese, is a homophone of the word "tragedy" in Chinese and is widely spreading among Netizens as an exaggerated and humorous expression. The word 餐具, literally meaning tableware, is another choice. 

钓鱼执法(diao4 yu2 zhi2 fa3)
entrapment
Entrapment is the act of a law enforcement agent inducing a person to commit an illegal activity that they would not normally have done.

瘦骨仙 (shou4 gu3 xian1)
bony beauty
For many years, those bony models have been elevated in the fashion circle to the status of an immortal. But as people pay more and more attention to health, the look has gradually lost its appeal.

娃娃装 (wa2 wa2 zhuang1)
baby-doll dress
It refers to the kind of women's wear that features clothing with puffed sleeves, or a sometimes sleeveless, pull-on design and attractive, square neck.
 
寂寞党 (ji4 mo4 dang3)
lonely clan
Some Netizens have taken to the catchphrase that, "What I do is not whatever it is, it is loneliness."These people are nicknamed 寂寞党.

物联网 (wu4 lian2 wang2）
Internet of things
The term has come to describe a number of technologies that enable the Internet to reach out to the real world of physical objects which incorporate installed chip technology. Made possible by wireless communications, real-time localization systems and radio frequency beacons, it is believed to usher in a future that closely links the physical world and cyberspace. Many believe that this will become a new economic boom sector after the Internet and related listed companies in the Chinese stock market have surged because of the heated discussion of this concept.

烎 (yin2)
steam ahead
This Chinese character originally means “brightness.” It became popular when a little-known team of professional computer game players with the same name took on a three-time World Cyber Games champion. The “烎"team showed the never-say-die spirit during the game and the word began to refer to this spirit and courage to defy establishment. It is believed that its new meaning was derived from the two parts of the character, which means “weapon fi ring.”

罪驾 (zui4 jia4)
drunk driving
The term repeatedly appeared in Chinese media after the country's traffic authority started a nationwide crackdown on drunk-driving. Fatal road accidents in Shanghai last year involving drunk driving were almost double that of the national average.

蜜糖派 (mi4 tang2 pai4)
sugar lady
It refers to beautiful office ladies who know how to be sweet to the right bosses and colleagues. Not really sweet or easy-going, but they smile if you are of use to them.

信使包 (xìn shǐ bāo)
messenger bag/courier bag
It is a kind of bag that is worn over one shoulder with the strap winding at the chest. Though it is traditionally mostly used by mail workers, it has now become an urban fashion icon.

薄食代 (bao2 shi2 dai4)
eat-less era
The Chinese term literally means an era in which people eat less and stay fit. It refers to the current trend where people increasingly distance themselves from oily food.

美容觉 (mei3 rong2 jiao4)
beauty-enhancing sleep
The time for sleep between 10pm and 2am is believed by some to be the best to help build a beautiful face as this period is when the metabolism is most active, helping the body excrete the toxic matter inside the body.

婴儿肥 (ying1 er2 fei2)
baby fat
It refers to the fat that a young girl in her puberty phase develops in the face but will most often lose later on as she grows up and matures physically.

春夏季 (chun1 xia4 ji4)
sprummer
The term, developed by Australian scientist Tim Entwisle, is a combination of spring and summer together with another new word “sprinter” indicating an early spring. The term refers to the season between spring and summer, the suggested additional period that is not clearly differentiated from the conventional four. Entwisle has argued that Australia requires five or six seasons to help people better understand their environment and monitor signs of climate change rather than the “arbitrary” four currently in use.

金砖四国 (jin1 zhuan1 si4 guo2)
BRICs
In economics, BRIC or BRICs, is an acronym that refers to the fast-growing developing economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China. Brazil is known as the “World’s Raw Material Base,” with Russia known as the “World’s Gas Station,” India known as the “World’s Office,” and China known as the “Factory of the World.” The term was first proposed by Jim O’Neill, chief economist of Goldman Sachs on November 20, 2001, in a published report entitled “The World Needs Better Economic BRICs.”

贫二代 (pin2 er4 dai4)
the second poor generation
The term refers to children of poor families in China who are usually very frugal and work hard to help their dependents overcome impoverished conditions. The phrase appears online in China as a result of a report saying that a freshman in the Xiangtan University in Hunan Province walked 10 kilometers to the school to save money for lunch. The term is opposite to the “second rich generation” who are usually born with a silver spoon.

数字游民 (shu4 zi4 you2 min2)
digital nomad
Digital nomad refers to a person who uses technology, particularly wireless networking, to work without the need for an office or other fixed address. They reach their colleagues via instant messaging, Twitter, Facebook, e-mail and occasionally by voice on their iPhones or Skype.

世博水 (shi4 bo2 shui3)
Expo water
It refers to high-quality drinking water now available in the World Expo 2010 area to the west of Huangpu River. Drinking water there used to be of low quality before a major local water factory was renovated and recently commissioned.

拼爹 (pin1 die1)
hardworking father
It refers to a father who had a rags-to-riches story. The son, however, usually idles away time by squandering money accumulated through his father’s hard work.

大众脸 (da4 zhong4 lian3)
public face
The term refers to people with very ordinary faces that are hard to remember among others. The reality is that they proliferate in general society. The term is opposite to “star face” people, whose looks resemble celebrities and are easy to recognize.

性格婚检 (xing4 ge2 hun1 jian3)
pre-marriage personality examination
The so-called “examination,” different from routine health checks before marriage registration, is designed to test whether the personalities of a couple match each other before they wed. The examination, which has recently been launched in Taiwan, combines psychological counseling and a personality test questionnaire.

格格党 (ge2 ge2 dang3)
princess clan
It is a workplace expression to describe those who were born after 1985, take their job as play, pay too much attention to their own needs and are too socially unsophisticated to heed public standards.

偶像剧 (ou3 xiang4 ju4)
fashion icon drama
It is a kind of soap opera that features an assortment of young pop stars playing out modern life stories but seldom exploring a serious topic.

啃老房 (ken3 lao3 fang2)
NEET-style home
In large cities like Shanghai, some young people who cannot afford a new home — a necessity for getting married — have to resort to their parents’ lifelong savings as a stepping stone on the road to wedlock.

杀伤力 (sha1 shang1 li4)
kill charm
When a woman or man is very beautiful or handsome, he or she is said to be endowed with an invincible power strong enough to charm an army of the opposite sex.

地王 (di4 wang2)
whopping-price land
When a developer wins a bid for land at an outrageously high price, the land is nicknamed as 地王, which literally means land king.

水壶男 (shui3 hu2 nan2)
kettle guy
The phrase "kettle guy," or "water-bottle man,"originates from young Japanese white-collar workers. It refers to those office workers who bring kettles with them every day to be economical and thrifty amid the global financial downturn and for the sake of environmental protection as well.

离活 (li2 huo2)
divorce hunter
The term, in contrast to marriage hunter or the live-to-marry clan who go all out to find a soul partner, refers to those married people who mull over divorce to return to a single life for freedom or divide property.

规则潜 (gui ze2qian3)
defunct rules
The term, a literal reversion of "hidden rules" in Chinese, refers to rules and regulations which no longer punish violators and do not work well any more. The defunct rules in fact foster hidden rules to some extent, the unspoken cues that dictate behavior and actions.