You know prawn crackers. But have you ever heard of prawn guys, the newest word creation floating in Chinese net slang? No? No problem. Conveniently, even laymen can easily identify shrimp guys at the first glance. A little rule of thumb: body top, face flop? Bingo! Then you have a shrimp guy on the hook. […]
Are you a passionate driver? You better not say that too loud, at least not in Chinese. Because while the dictionary only gives the innocuous translation “drive a car” when you type in the character combination 开车 kāichē (“steer – car”), another translation is already riding shotgun. In Chinese, driving a motor vehicle has recently […]
In the fast lane with lots of horsepower and pedal to the metal? Watch out, don’t turn the car over! In a figurative sense, this also applies to China’s data highways. Just one mistake in the upper ranks of Internet stars and influencers can cause a heavy crash.翻车 fānchē – literally “the car rolls over” […]
The character 串 is so visually distinctive that you will probably not forget any time soon after reading this article – whether you know Chinese or not. In the form of neon signs, it has already guided the way for many hungry “big-nosed foreigners” to culinary sites. And maybe it’s also a hot candidate for […]
Gender asterisks, colons, internal I? The Chinese hardly have to worry about gender-appropriate language. This is simply due to the nature of Chinese grammar. Chinese words generally do not differentiate according to grammatical gender. So if someone talks about the 老师 lǎoshī, the conversation is initially completely open as to whether it is a female […]
China hops into the rabbit year. That means it’s time to take a look inside the rabbit hutch of Chinese culture. Time to take a look inside the rabbit hutch of Chinese culture. While the Easter bunny is the best-known breed in the West, the “moon rabbit” (月兔 yuètù) or “jade rabbit” (玉兔 yùtù) munches […]
Hot lemon, onion syrup, ginger tea, and chicken broth, cold baths, and calf wraps … you might want to add another home remedy to your repertoire the next time you have the flu or a Covid knockout: canned peaches.As the corona tsunami surges through China, not only fever medication such as ibuprofen (布洛芬 bùluòfēn), cough […]
Clothes not only make the man, but also the dog! This is at least true if you look around on the sidewalks of Beijing and other major Chinese cities. Whether in the backyards of the red clinker brick buildings of the western district, the narrow Hutong alleys between the Drum Tower and the Lama Temple […]
Hearing the word “taxes” can quickly raise the hairs on the back of your neck. Income tax, value-added tax, car tax … words that will quickly trigger people. But did you know there is even an IQ tax in China?Fortunately, this so-called 智商税 zhìshāngshuì (from 智商 zhìshāng “intelligence quotient” and 税 shuì “tax”) is not […]
What are the top 3 stopgap gestures for selfies, group photos, and other spontaneous snaps? Clearly: victory sign, thumbs up, and flick a heart. Wait a minute, flick a heart? Every kid in China has long known this finger gymnastics. 比心 bǐxīn – literally “gesturing/imitating a heart” – is the name given to this pose, […]