More Chinglish phrases enter US slang dictionary

More Chinglish phrases enter US slang dictionary

A recent trend of using Chinese catchphrases such as, "you can you up," and "no zuo no die," and their being included in an online US slang dictionary are creating a buzz among Web users, people.cn said on Thursday.

In addition to the expressions "tuhao," which means nouveau riche, and "dama," which means "married women between the ages of 40-60," more Chinese-oriented buzzwords have been included in the online Urban Dictionary.

A case in point is "you can you up," a Chinglish phrase meaning, if you can do it, then go and do it. Speakers also attach the phrase with another one, "no can no BB," meaning, if you can't do it, then don't criticize it.

"No zuo no die" is another Chinglish phrase that has been included in the dictionary. "Zuo" is the pinyin spelling of the Chinese word meaning, to do crazy things. The phrase means if you don't do stupid things, they won't come back and bite you on the backside.

Besides the words being included in the foreign slang dictionary, Chinese-style English words are also making their way into major foreign media and official dictionaries.

In an article "Gendercide: The worldwide war on baby girls," published in the Economist in 2010, the writer uses the Chinese phrase "guanggun (光棍)" meaning "bare branches" to describe single men in China.

Other Chinese words such as "feng shui (风水)," "Maotai (茅台)," and "gan bu (干部)" were included in the Oxford English Dictionary.

With their cultural characteristics, the phrases reflect changes happening in China's society and people's daily lives, said Xing Hongbing, an expert from Beijing Language and Culture University.

The words were born in an environment of phenomena or things with Chinese characteristics that are hard to translate, Xing added.

It is a common trend for Chinese and English to mingle with each other, as language contraction and communication have become more frequent in the age of information, said Zhang Yiwu, a professor at the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University.

The trend also means that Chinese culture, Chinese people's lifestyles and their interests have attracted attention from the English-speaking world, Zhang added.