Social Chinese

• How to be a 'buddha-like youth'

  Dec 26, 2017

  Are you a passive person—the type who just accepts whatever life throws at you, and never cuts in line? If so, there’s a netizen word for your attitude—“Buddha-like”, a term particularly associated with those born after 1990s, or “Buddha-like youths”.

• All you can eat in Chinese

  Dec 19, 2017

  You probably don’t recall chewing on a mouthful of vinegar; it’s hardly a well-balanced meal and would be damn tough to swallow. But then again, so is watching a rival in love steal the object of your affections. Just like the grumpy baby in the picture below, no one wishes to end up eating vinegar(吃醋 chī cù).

• Red flags

  Dec 18, 2017

  Chinese moviegoers have a term for this sort of signaling: “Don’t raise a flag!”

• The magic word for addressing strangers

  Oct 17, 2017

  You’ve just left the office and have a hankering for some down-home Chinese food.

• Hot pot or malatang?

  Jul 7, 2017

  It’s hard to imagine that any organization called the China Standardization Administration and General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine could manage to stir the (hot) pot of a years-old culinary controversy.