Language is a big, beautiful, bastard thing, never more so than when it deals in slang. In recent years, the internet has become an indispensable part of people's lives and internet slang is now all the rage in the modern day. Numerous slang emerges in China too, of course. Usually, the spread of one specific nibble of slang is linked to whatever bit of news is the gossip at that particular moment in time, often going viral on the internet. Recently, several Chinese internet slang phrases have made it to the UrbanDictionary.com, leading their way into the English-speaking world. Here are some examples of Chinese internet slang to get on to Urbandictionary:
You can you up
ni xing ni shang【你行你上】
This means '"if you can do it, then you go and do it." The entry on the UrbanDictionary.com elaborates: "it's used against people who criticize others' work, especially when the criticizer is not that much better." Often the phrase is followed by "no can no BB" (bu xing bie BB【不行别BB】), which means "if you can't do it, then don't criticize others". "BB" means to nag or complain in Beijing and Dongbei dialects.
The phrase originated from the public's response to the Lakers' being defeated by the Thunder in the Western Conference Semi-finals of 2012. A lot of people blamed Kobi for losing the game at that time, but one of the real fans of Kobi came to his defense and said: "you can you up". This later was widely spread on the internet and became popular internet slang.
No zuo no die
bu zuo bu si【不作不死】
Noted on the UrbanDictionary.com, this phrase means "if you don't do stupid things, they won't come back and bite you in the ass (but if you do, they most certainly will)." Zuo refers to "acting silly or daringly to cause attention from others" in Chinese.
This phrase derived from a well-known saying from the popular Japanese comic series-Gundam, bu zuo si jiu bu hui si【不作死就不会死】. Last year, it went viral on Weibo, and made it as one of the top 10 bits of internet slang on various lists. It was later simplified to the current bu zuo bu si【不作不死】.
Undirectlookable
wu fa zhi shi【无法直视】
According to the explanation given by the UrbanDictionary.com, "a thing that is too weird, ugly or disgusting to look at is called undirectlookable." It also refers to things that cannot be looked at normally, and is usually used together with hui san guan【毁三观】- distorting one's values.
The origin of this phrase and the exact time it went viral is unclear, but what is clear is that the English translation became popular in February, 2013, when a netizen proposed a question on Weibo: "I've learnt a new vocabulary-Undirectlookable; anybody knows what does it means?" The question was answered in the post, simply by "direct + look + un……able", which intrigued great interest from netizens.
The appearance of Chinese internet slang on UrbanDictionary.com caused extensive attention on the internet; some netizens commented that there is more Chinese internet slang, which should also be included in the dictionary. For instance, "No picture you say a JB" which means "Don't speak out if you have no pictures to prove it" ("JB" means dick); and also "You such a two, your family know?" which means "Do your family know you is so stupid?" (Two means silly or dumb-headed in Chinese). As English is open to almost every possible origin of words, it is very likely that there will be more Chinese words and phrases adopted by or hybridized into English.
Image courtesy of 网易.
Article by Meng Zhu
