偷着胖 （tou1zhepang4）
unnoticeably fat, a hidden fatty
Those who don’t look fat with clothes on, but are actually quite plump are called a hidden fatty in northern China. It takes great efforts to be secret about one’s subcutaneous fat these days when revealing clothing is in, especially for young women.
触电（chu4dian4）
flick appearance, thrill
The term was first used to describe a person who acts for the first time in a movie on the sideling of his or her profession. Now it applies to whoever gives it a try on TV or theatrical stages or in any business related to entertainment and high-tech outside their regular job. It also means the thrill you feel when excited or surprised.
人来疯（ren2lai2feng1）
get hyped before crowd
Many children tend to close their usual self and turn unruly when guests drop by. It is also used to describe the rarely exhibited showy behavior of an adult at the presence of a crowd of strangers.
骨灰级（gu3hui1ji2）
guru
Those well-acclaimed masters in a field are referred to by today’s youngsters as someone at a guhui level. However, caution is suggested when speaking in the face of such a master, if he or she is elderly, as he or she may take offense at the Chinese term, which means bone ashes.
票友（piao4you3）
amateur-pros
In old days, traditional Chinese opera performers were placed on the lower rungs of the social ladder. Some high-class people good at the art only performed as a hobby, rather than a way of eking out a living like professional opera singers. These days, any amateur performers who can beat pros are also referred to as a piaoyou.
卡奴（ka3nu2）
card slave
Along with the popular use of credit cards in some large cities in China, some card users, especially youngsters with large shopping addictions and small salaries, gradually become credit card slaves, because they borrow form one credit card to pay off debts on another credit card. Due to their meager salaries, they always live on the edge of bankruptcy.
飙车（biao1che1）
drag racing
Living a better life than before, some Chinese youngsters are infatuated with drag racing. Recently the Chinese media reported that some people drove their Coach Builder Cars at a dangerous speed racing around Beijing’s ring roads. The police have arrested two youngsters in their 20s this year for driving at nearly 150kilometers an hour in downtown streets.
人脉（ren2mai4）
connections
Ren literally means a human and mai, veins and arteries, which are traditionally deemed essential to good health. Some experts say friendships and other personal relations may push an entrepreneur a solid step toward success.
Hi,
Thanks a lot Jenny and Ken for the Buzzwords section introduction. Great way to stay up to date with the contemporary language. Especially for those, such as myself, who lived in China but left some time ago and yet need or want to maintain the level, stay “modern” so to say. One word of constructive critique: since Mandarin is a very pragmatic language (both in its grammatical and its lexicological senses), any new vocabulary should be learnt and practiced in the language contexts to achieve better understanding and learn the correct usage. So, next time, if you could give 1-2 examples of these buzzwords’ usage (could be of any level), it’ll help a lot. Otherwise, we all become walking dictionaries: hundreds of new words and no idea how to use them.
Thanks a lot once again!
Natalie,
Mandarin language great fan
(BA in Applied Linguistics, Asian Studies, Mandarin language and literature)
Hi Natalie,
I’m pretty impressed with your studies. I hope you peruse the discussions and drop in your quarters. My comments are only worth a couple cents or at times a nickel or two. Did you know there is an audio mp3 that accompanies these Buzzwords, it can be found in iTunes via Shanghai Daily. The discussion there usually has a bit more context and sometimes examples.
I do think it would be nice if Cpod could provide an MP3 link here on the blog and certainly adding a couple sentence examples, especially in a simple, intermediate, and advanced sentence structure to the buzz-definitions certainly would add to the learning/retention value! Otherwise it’s more just a fun read than anything else.
David,
Good point. Let me talk to the tech people…
Thanks a lot for the feedback and for the tip LanTian. I had a look at the website and found fairly comprehensive English explanation of these new vocabularly, however it’ll sill be great to have for example something along these lines (apologies for any mistakes and for not yet being able to type characters):
Ren2 mai4 = syn. Guan1 xi0 = network, connections
1. (Kou3 yu3) Zuo4 sheng1yi4 de shi2hou4, gong1zuo4 de ren2mai4 jiao1liu2, chi1fan4 shi4 yi1zhong3 te4bie2 zhong4yao4 de she4jiao1 bu4fen1.
2. (Shu1mian4):… (sorry haven’t got any examples)
Usage: can be replaced by “guan1xi”, but not in all the contexts. Exceptions:…
Etymology: from ren=person, human + mai= arteries
This is what I’d really like to have accompanying these new words.
Thanks
Natalie