史丹利杯
Pronounced: Shǐdānlì Bēi
Means: The Stanley Cup
加人
Pronounced: Jiārén
Means: Canucks
(Found this vocab here.)
爆炸
Pronounced: bàozhà
Means:
1. explosion; to explode.
2. What happened at a government building in Tianjin this week by a guy who wanted revenge on “society” (according to China’s state media). Example:
“An explosion happened at the front door of the Tianjin government.”
天津政府门前发生了爆炸。
报复社会
Pronounced: bàofù shèhuì
Means:
1. Get revenge on society.
2. The alleged motivation of the guy who set off a bomb at a government building in Tianjin this week.
Pronounced: tòng zǎi / cǎn
Means: “painfully slaughter” / “wretched; miserable; badly“.
Words used to describe a sports team getting its butt kicked. For example:
“Boston just totally slaughtered Vancouver.”
波士頓痛宰了温哥华！
“Vancouver lost miserably.”
温哥华输得很惨！
Pronounced: dàyuèjìn
Means:
1. The Great Leap Forward (1958-61), China’s infamously disastrous economic and social campaign in which dozens of millions died.
2. Name for the Chinese version of the card game “President” (a.k.a. “Scum”), in which your seat, rank and privileges at the table change each round according to your relative success in each hand.
Pronounced: shèhuì guǎnlǐ
Means:
1. Social Management, as in “Research, strengthen and innovate the social management issue” 研究加强和创新社会管理问题。
2. “stability-plus”, as in “there are more than enough conservatives around who want to make the new slogan of ‘social management’ stand for ‘stability-plus.’”
Other related key buzz words are “harmonious society”（和谐社会），”harmoniousness” （和谐），”to be harmonized” （被和谐），and “maintain social stability”（维持/维护社会稳定）。
Pronounced: zǒu gǒu
Means: “running dog” (Communist-speak), lackey, “tool”, someone who allows themself to be used by another who uses them to harm others.
Example:
This cartoon from a propaganda poster (宣传画) on a neighbourhood bulletin board (布告栏, 宣传栏) says “Faithful running dog” (忠实走狗) underneath, and shows the skinny legs and striped pants characteristic of Uncle Sam (山姆大叔) holding a dog with the name of a particular “evil cult” (邪教) written on it, insinuating that Uncle Sam is an “anti-China influence” (反华势力) and uses this evil cult to destabilize China.
Pronounced: kǒngmíng dēng / xǔyuàn dēng
Literally: Kong Ming lantern / make-a-wish lantern
Means: sky lantern, the candle-powered floating lanterns released into the sky during the Lantern Festival.
Pronounced: bài nián
Literally: 拜： worship, pay respects, salute, visit. 年： year.
Means: to make Chinese New Year’s visits to relatives and friends, or send Chinese New Year’s greetings.
Take a quick gander at a google image search for 拜年 to get a little taste of the idea.
Pronounced: sùzhì
Literally: quality
Means: This is the word I often hear used to describe what’s lacking in a person or in China’s general population, e.g. “Their 素质 is too low” or “In your country people have higher 素质”, often in reference to people’s ‘uncivilized’ behaviour like causing unnecessary traffic jams with their selfish driving habits. Makes me cringe a bit when I hear people use it; flatly ascribing more or less quality to people, as if they’re mere products on a store shelf, feels a little too close to ascribing value to be comfortable.
