Slang words in China reveal underlying class tensions

December 26, 2013 Leave a comment

Slang words in China reveal underlying class tensions

Staff Reporter

2013-12-25

The old term for rural landowning tyrants in Chinese, “tuhao” — “tu” meaning bumpkin or uncultured, and “hao” meaning rich and powerful — has now been adopted to refer to China’s nouveau riche, and has been one of the buzzwords in the Chinese media this year.It started out as a kind of psychological defense for the working classes against the pretension and condescension of the newly wealthy, according to the South Reviews Magazine, a Guangzhou-based political and economic bi-weekly.

In 2012 another phrase entered popular usage, namely “diao si” — “diao” is a slang word for penis, and “si” means silk or string — a self-effacing, derogatory term used to point out the meaninglessness of the lives of rural-urban migrants in China, hence its common translation as “loser.”

The term was proactively adopted by this demographic to protect themselves against similar expressions used by the wealthier classes in Chinese society to demean and belittle them.

“Tuhao” is a further attempt to prevent the newly wealthy classes in Chinese from forgetting where they came from and looking down on the less fortunate.

Usage of the phrase also offers hope to the working classes, as it essentially points out that even bumpkins can become rich and powerful within a generation or two, thereby belying the outward hostility of the phrase, and reflecting their underlying acceptance of the systems of power and wealth in China.

The term has soared in popularity after Chinese microblogging service Sina Weibo launched a campaign entitled “Make friends with a ‘tuhao,'” through which many in the general public realized that they could use the term to alleviate any feeling of psychological inferiority.

Filed under Macro Trends

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