Slang Of Modern Chinese Language

What is the definition of slang?

What is the sociolinguistic aspect of slang?

How does slang function on the Internet?

What are the areas of use of slang?

Does slang reflect society and culture?

Descriptive methods (methods of observation, generalization, typologization of the analyzed material)

Analysis of lexical units on the basis of the component analysis method

Job, profession, business

It is very interesting to trace the semantic history of two slang expressions denoting "dismiss, be dismissed":

卷铺盖 [juǎn pūgài] "roll up bed-linen";

炒鱿鱼 [chǎo yóuyú] "fry a squid".

The point is, earlier when a person was fired from a factory, he was forced to fold bed linen and take it home, and asquid, when roasting, wraps inside, like bed linen, hence the meaning of "firing".

Large corporations in China are developing at a rapid pace, they hunt for talented workers, companies compete for the best staff:

猎头 [liètóu] "hunt for heads", search for staff, headhunting, search for talented senior employees in all fields of activity.

It is well known that rice is a traditional Chinese food:

饭碗 [fànwǎn] "a bowl of rice" (a metaphor for a stable social guarantees, i.e. public service).

Money, monetary relations

In real life, the traditional attitude of the Chinese to wealth appears as frugality, even stinginess. At any rate, Chinese nation has the highest savings rate in the world. It is logical that wasting money is considered wrong and strongly condemned:

出血[chūxiě] "shed blood", squander savings, lay out money.

But a person who knows how to handle moneyis called 掉钱眼儿里[diào qián yǎnr lǐ] "get into the hole of the coin".

Financial pyramids appear, develop and disappear all over the world.In China, financial pyramids are prohibited, but continue to thrive. People informally call financial pyramids老鼠会[lǎoshǔhuì] "meeting of mice". In China, the mouse is one of the 12 zodiac signs, the Chinese traditionally respect and fear mice, they are considered to be incredibly cunning animals. In addition to the traditional features of financial pyramids, Chinese ones are characterized by a paramilitary organization. Often, new members of the financial pyramids are kept in paramilitary barracks, isolating from the outside world and showering promises of incredible income. The new participant is subjected to psychological treatment, he is forbidden from contacting the outside world.

Marriage, children, relationships

In China, there is a problem, which is called in Chinese大男大女 [dànán dànǚ] "over age men and women." It refers to unmarried men and women above the average age for marriage. This problem has a social nature in modern China: parents worry, the leadership shows attention, even the government thinks how to solve this problem (Speshnev, 2011, p. 231).

There are more slang expressions describing the same problem towards women:

老姑娘 [lǎogūniang] "old maid", an unmarried woman over the age of 30;

没主 [méi zhǔ] "without owner", single, unmarried woman; a woman who does not have a boyfriend.

In contrast to Europeans, who foster independence in children, the Chinese believe that close relationship between parents and children should be maintained for the rest of their lives (Speshnev, 2011, p. 155). In modern China, more and more young people are leaving their hometown, and parents are left alone: 空巢 [kōngcháo] "empty nest", a home where the kids have grown up and moved out.

The Internet, social networks

Due to the emergence of many new gadgets young Chinese spend a huge amount of time on the Internet.

微博控 [wēibókòng]Weibo dependence, Twittermania (微博 - abbreviation for微型博客 [wēixíng bókè] "microblog", usually means Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo which are analogues of Twitter in China).

低头族 [dītóu zú] "looking-down tribe", young Chinese, who continuously look at the screen of their phones, e-books, iPhone, iPad, without looking up. They can use gadgets not only in public transport, but even walking down the street and crossing the road (MaGazeta, 2017).

In 1998, the development of the project "Golden shield"(unofficial name - "the Great Chinese Firewall") was started. In 2003 it was put into operation. It is a system of servers that filter the content on the Internet. Users of the Chinese Internet have learned to bypass the filters due to the homonymy of the Chinese language:

河蟹 [héxiè] "sea crab", homonym of word 和谐 [héxié] "harmony". Used to bypass possible censorship, to make fun of the government's policy of "harmonious community" (MaGazeta, 2013).

ZF = 政府 [zhèng fǔ] replacing the word "government" to bypass the Internet filters in China (chinaSMACK, 2017).

Attitude of urban residents to foreigners and migrants

The Chinese can name a migrant or a person born in another country 二等公民[èrděng gōngmín] "second-class citizen", the residents of Chinese cities call those who live on the outskirts of the city and do not have a residence permit, but lead the urban way of life 亚市民[yǎ shìmín] "second-class citizen".

The relationship between the inhabitants of mainland China and Hong Kong have always been ambiguous. In 2012, there was a scandal: residents of Hong Kong and mainland China stopped even trying to hide their contempt for each other. After a series of several conflicts, Beijing University Professor Kong Qingdong called on Chinese television to drive out all Hong Kong residents as thieves and dogs. Hong Kong responded by comparing guests from mainland China with locust, flocks of which come from the north to destroy the city. The apogee of history was a publication that was published on February 1 in the newspaper "Apple Daily"with the illustration of a giant locust in the background of the panorama of Hong Kong and with the words香港人, 忍够了! [Xiāng gǎng rén rěn gòule]"Hongkong residents have had enough!"The illustration not only angered many Chinese, but also gave birth to a series of parodies on the Internet – posters made in the same style and manner. Parodies made fun of the Chinese immigrants in the United States ("The Americans have had enough!"), of incompetent politicians ("The Chinese people have had enough!"), of the people talking on the telephone during the concert ("Real music lovers have had enough!") and so on (MaGazeta, 2013).

Status, reputation, the "face"

It is known that collectivism is characteristic of Eastern culture, and individualism is characteristic of Western culture. The Eastern people give special significance to collectivism. The Eastern person adapts to society in order to correspond to others, to be in harmony with society. To "adapt" means to attach importance to connections, relationship between people and the "face" (Speshnev, 2011, p. 117). "Face"(a word, difficult for definition, can be correlated with English "honor","reputation", the concept of "face" is fundamental for the Chinese society) and connections are the main components of life in Chinese society that determine the status of a person.

人脉[rénmài] have a lot of acquaintances

成气候[chéngqìhòu] have power, succeed, achieve success

根儿硬[gēnryìng] have a strong support

The Chinese often resort to the help of bribes to solve any problems or achieve social privileges:

奶水[nǎishuǐ] "milk", benefit received by a person after giving a bribe

手榴弹[shǒuliúdàn] "pomegranate", a bottle of wine that you bring as a gift to flatter someone.

In summary, each of the six selected groups covers a significant part of China's social processes, is separate and at the same time has intersections with other groups, which is explained by the interrelationship of all spheres of social life.