Chinese netizens enjoy playing with language. They make up new words, insert alphabetic and numerical abbreviations between the Chinese characters in their posts, write backwards and upside down to fool the censors, and trade catchphrases with wild abandon. Dour language mavens have complained that the liberties they take with the language are harming Chinese culture and the traditional script, but they've been unable to stop netizens from having fun.

To outsiders, however, conversations full of acronyms, ancient characters, and allusions to pop Chinese culture is quite difficult to understand. Below are some introductory examples of vocabulary that will help you understand what Chinese netizens are saying. I'll be sharing more examples with future installments on Chinese Internet Slang / Net Speak"...more to come, but for now, have fun with these!

1) Visual pun: “囧” [pronounced “jiong”]

After becoming widely used online in China, the last month or so has seen this character explode into mainstream media / culture. It's been splashed onto the cover of books and magazines, where it serves as a shorthand for Internet culture. The obscure character 囧, which originally meant "bright," looks like someone gaping in astonishment, so Chinese netizens reinterpreted it as a general response of helplessness (either from admiration or dismay) or gloom. By extension it came to encompass the entire "egao" parody phenomenon (also known by the Japanese word "kuso").

2) Catch-phrase: "Economize: Drink Maotai" ["节约点，喝茅台" pronounced "jie yue dian, he mao tai"]

[Warning, this is very funny] The latest online catch-phrase was inspired by a recent report about a government official in Sichuan who beat up a liquor seller for overcharging on a bottle of Maotai alcohol. The explanation given: "Director Cao wanted to economize, because money is tight at the personnel bureau and he still owes money for house repairs." Chinese netizens are always quick to pick up on hypocrisy, particularly on the part of local governments – the irony of a bureau director claiming to want to save money by buying China's most famous brand of alcohol (and beating someone up over it) was too good to pass up.

3) Visual Pun: “槑” [pronounced “mei”]

An obscure alternate form of 梅, plum, the character 槑 is formed from two 呆 characters, which means "dull / stupid / foolish." Netizens use it to refer to anyone who is especially slow-witted. Because it kind of looks like two people standing next to each other, it shows up quite a bit in cartoons and image macros alongside 囧. Another adapted character, 雷 ("thunder"), is used to mean "shock." For something especially shocking, the character is tripled to produce this character: 靐 (pronounced "bing").

4) Describing the opposition: FQ JY BS:

When Chinese netizens aren't having fun playing with catch-phrases and characters, they're often arguing with each other, and they often employ shorthand to refer to their opponents (and often themselves as well). FQ means 愤青, "angry youth," and is used dismissively to refer to ultra-nationalist netizens (of which there are plenty). Some FQ have tried to reclaim the term as a badge of pride. On the other side are JY, 精英, "elite": intellectuals who tend to be liberal and supportive of universal values. A third abbreviation, BS 鄙视, "despise or disdain," is tossed around by netizens on both sides of the aisle.

5) Modifier: “山寨“ [pronounced “shan zhai”]

The word 山寨 literally means "mountain fort" or "village," but is also used as a modifier meaning "knock-off," to describe off-brand / fake products manufactured in small, tucked-away shops in Chinese villages, etc.. Some of these no-name brands have begun to advertise using celebrity-lookalikes as spokespersons. Knock-off F4, knock-off Emil Chou, and knock-off Jay Chou have all turned up in advertisements, drawing mockery from Chinese netizens. The term is even being applied to Chinese remakes of foreign TV and movies.

Adam Schokora
Edelman Digital, China