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.

留级生 (liu2 ji2 sheng1)
repeatedly failed bidder
The Chinese term originally means a repeater or a student who fails to progress to the next grade in school. Here, it refers to those who have repeatedly failed in their bid at auction, such as Shanghai's monthly auction for car license plates.

糗事 (qiu2 shi4)
faux pas, gaffe
Young people use this Chinese expression to refer to those occurrences that embarrass one or both parties, either because of a slip of the tongue, improper act or misunderstanding.

牛皮癣 (niu2 pi2 xuan3)
street spam
The Chinese term literally means psoriasis, a common but annoying skin disease. It is now often used figuratively to describe usually shoddy printed ads or signs unsightly plastered on street walls, trees, utility poles, telephone booths or other public places.

三低男 (san1 di1 nan2)
three-low man
The term refers to men who keep a low profile before their wife instead of being a male chauvinist, pose low risk of income problems because of steady, though not high, wages, and set low limits on their wife's freedom.

植入式广告 (zhi2 ru4 shi4 guang3 gao4)
product placement
This refers to the practice of intentionally showing the brand of a product in a movie to promote it in an unostentatious way. For instance, in the popular movie “If You Are the One,” certain brands of cell phones and an airline company are displayed.

桌游 (zhuo1 you2)
board game
Board games didn’t gain popularity in China until recent years. The Chinese expression literally means a table game.
 
人才抄底 (ren2 cai2 chao1 di3)
recruit talents at bottom price
Some employers regard the global recession as a great opportunity to get high-quality professionals for a relatively low cost. Several overseas recruitment efforts have focused on overseas Chinese talents, more of whom are willing to work in China.

白菜价 (bai2 cai4 jia4)
dirt cheap
In China, if someone says that a product is being sold at the “cabbage price,” he means it is as cheap as dirt. Cabbage is usually regarded as one of the cheapest vegetables in the market.

银色浪潮 (yin2 se4 lang4 chao2)
silver tide
The term is a metaphor of a social phenomenon as the aging population is expanding rapidly in Shanghai and other big cities around China.

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晒伤妆 (shai4 shang1 zhuang1)
sunburn makeup
This makeup causes the wearer’s face to look like it is sunburned. It was the signature makeup style of Chinese pop singer Faye Wong who made the look very fashionable among young people.

囧一代 (jiong3 yi2 dai4)
orz generation
It is derived from a Japanese emoticon and refers to young adults who face challenges brought on by a tight job market or frustration with finding a spouse. The word orz refers to a person kneeling and bowing in defeat.

速配 (su4 pei4)
speed group dating
White-collar class members’ problems with finding a soul partner have spawned group dating activities, some in the form of a TV show, to help match up young lonely hearts.

飞毛腿 (fei1 mao2 tui3)
bargain hunter
Some young people are enthusiastic bargain hunters at all kinds of sales or service promotions. The expression originally refers to someone who is a fast runner.

黑哨 (hei1 shao4）
match-fixing referee, cheating
The term translates literally as “black whistle” and refers to calls by match-fixing referees in sports games. Now it refers to all unfair verdicts.

白领炮灰团（bai2 ling3 pao4 hui1 tuan2）
white-collar cannon fodder
The term refers to office workers who struggle for a better life by sacrificing their free time and jeopardizing health through often working overtime to keep their jobs.

走班族 (zou3 ban1 zu2）
walk-to-work clan
The phrase refers to those who choose to go to work on foot instead of taking buses or cars in order to avoid traffic jams and to keep themselves fit.

单片女王 (dan1 pian4 nv3 wang2)
single-hit queen
This refers to those female stars that become “red hot” after shooting only one film, TV series or advertisement but are never able to repeat the success.

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地球一小时 (di4 qiu2 yi4 xiao3 shi2)
Earth Hour
The Chinese term literally means “an hour on the earth” and corresponds to the original English term "Earth Hour." This international event is held on the last Saturday of March each year, encouraging households, governments and businesses to turn off non-essential lights for one hour to save energy.

弹性退休 (tan2 xing4 tui4 xiu1)
flexible retirement
Most Chinese state employees must retire at fixed ages by law — men at 60 and women at 55. But many people are calling for flexible arrangements whereby employees and employers can negotiate to postpone the retirement ages, say to 68.

丁士族 （ding1 shi4 zu2）
DINS
The expression is used mainly in Taiwan where it means families that enjoy a double income but without sex because the husband and wife are too preoccupied with their work to have the mood or time for sex.

烘焙鸡 (hong1 bei4 ji1)
home page
This term, meaning literally “baked chicken” in Chinese, is a comical transliteration used by Netizens for the English words “home page.” The pronunciation of the Chinese term is quite similar to the English phrase.

有毒资产 (you3 du2 zi1 chan3)
toxic assets
It refers to various asset categories hard hit by the financial crisis, such as subprime mortgages. Use of “toxic” became widespread as any person, bank or organization holding subprime mortgages or related assets became financially debilitated.

僵尸银行 (jiang1 shi1 yin2 hang2)
zombie bank
The term refers to a bank that cannot lend money because its liabilities are greater than its assets, but it stays in business thanks to government support.

网店装修工 (wang3 dian4 zhuang1 xiu1 gong1)
Web store builders
It refers to Web technology veterans who help design Web pages for online shop owners to attract more customers. Their responsibilities are compared to apartment decoration workers, but Web store builders use pictures, flash and music clips instead of construction materials.

恋检 (lian4 jian3)
love tests
A professor at Nankai University in China recently invented a test to determine if two people should start a relationship. It aims to analyze the values, personalities and behaviors of each in line with the principles of a Couple-Centered Approach.

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