04.25.07
China by Acronyms
You would never guess that a country with an ideographic language system would have so many acronymous terms and organizations…but here you go. Additions welcome.
CCTV With world class programming from that Larry King-wannabee asshole on “Dialogue” to the 7 o’clock news, coming to you live simultaneously from 26 different stations, China Central Television is certain not to disappoint.
NBA Is it any wonder that the first words in English for Chinese boys these days are “I love this game?”
KTV the Chinese term for “karaoke,” the national pastime of Asia
QQ The ubiquitous instant messaging software which everybody…I mean EVERYBODY in China under the age of 30 has. It’s also the name of China’s best selling domestic car, which is something like a cross between a Geo Metro and a Big Wheel.
AA This is the Chinese term for “splitting the bill” or “going Dutch,” and I don’t mean Chinglish. This term is used by Chinese people when speaking Chinese. How it made its way into the Chinese vernacular is beyond me.
XP “ekk uhh suh pee” the operating system which powers 90% of China’s personal computers, available at your local market for 5 kuai.
DIY (Do it yourself) refers to buying the individual parts for a computer and putting them together yourself, rather than buying the whole computer together. It also usually comes with a complimentary copy of ekk uhh suh pee.
CS That ubiquitous computer game that takes up 90% of the bandwidth of Chinese Internet bars. You can be quite certain that at any given moment the number of people playing CS in China is greater than the population of most European states.
ICBC The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. They must have more branches than the entire Redwood Forrest. You literally can’t walk 5 minutes in any Chinese city without finding one, if not four.
CCP Need we elaborate?
WC I had honestly never heard this term before I came to China, but supposedly it was what they called the crapper in the 1800’s, and apparently still do call it today in France.
KFC The standard bearer by which all “hamburger” restaurants are judged in China. (Other local permutations include DFC, BEC, HDC, and MDC)
VCD The “wee see dee” was the preferred medium for videos in China before the emergence of DVD technology. It revolutionarily combined the convenience of a CD and the picture quality of a conventional webcam.
PICC The China Property and Casualty Company is on a quest to make sure no Chinese skyline is without one of its hideously monotonous signs. After 3 years of being bombarded with their advertisements, I still have no idea what they do.
TMD is short for 他妈的, and literally means “his mother.” It is probably the closest approximation in the Chinese language to the word “fuck.” My own personal favorite syntax is to use it as an adverb: “真TMD (adjective).” For example: 这个网站真TMD酷 (This website is really fucking cool!).
Danielle
said,
April 25, 2007 at 4:49 pm
KTV: the Chinese term for “karaoke,” the national pastime of EAST Asia.
WC: you literally can’t stroll 5 minutes in any German shopping mall without finding one, if not 4.
Ron Frost
said,
April 25, 2007 at 5:10 pm
“WC” is still often used in England, even if you don’t use the term in your bastardised colonial language.
Matt Schiavenza
said,
April 25, 2007 at 5:25 pm
For some reason, the US is the only country I know of that doesn’t employ the term “WC” on public restrooms. Well, I’m not sure about Canada. Definitely every European country has it and quite a few (if not all) Chinese restrooms do as well.
Dim_Summary
said,
April 25, 2007 at 7:23 pm
I don’t have any new entries, but you forgot that QQ is also a delicious gummy candy that comes in many fruit flavors.
Benjamin Ross
said,
April 26, 2007 at 9:19 am
Ron-
Ok, so maybe “WC” might be written on a few stalls in England, but do people actually still say it in speech? When I first heard this word in China, I specifically asked a British friend, who said that they don’t say it either, or at least haven’t for the past 100 years.
P.S. Long live the Queen!!!
James Chiang
said,
April 26, 2007 at 10:45 am
Don’t forget PK. Could you explain it to us?
James Chiang
said,
April 26, 2007 at 11:22 am
Sometimes we call XP ‘叉P’ or ‘叉屁’, because the letter X likes the mark cross (叉). You also can translate it to 擦屁 ( rub fart? ).
Benjamin Ross
said,
April 26, 2007 at 11:59 pm
What is PK? Peking? Penalty kick? Anybody heard of this?
Isabel Anheier
said,
April 27, 2007 at 2:08 am
About WC- yes, the term is used all over Europe, and it is occasionally slipped into speech as well, at least in Germany. The term means “water closet”.
chriswaugh_bj
said,
April 27, 2007 at 12:59 pm
PK I believe means “player kill”. You obviously don’t watch enough TV. Apparently it refers to the sudden death play-offs on those stupid reality/talent(less) quest shows.
p.s. No, I don’t watch TV. My wife does.
Chris
said,
April 27, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Am I the only person that it bothers that a chicken sandwich is called a 汉堡. It’s not a hamburger, its a chicken sandwich! I don’t know how this happened, I blame KFC.
And at least in World of Warcraft, PK refers to killing another player, “player kill” as opposed to a computer controlled character.
James Chiang
said,
April 28, 2007 at 9:48 am
Ben, I forgot that what you participated in is the “SuperMe”on Fujian Southeast Television, not the Hunan Television’s “Super Girls”(超级女生). If you could participate in the “Super Girls”, you would definitely know what “PK”is.
Ken Erickson
said,
April 30, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Karaoke is not the Asian National Pastime, Ben. Asia is not a nation and so it can’t have its own pass time. How about KTV: “Chinese locution for Pan-Asian mostly drunken singing obsession”?
Jeremy
said,
May 9, 2007 at 8:22 pm
the full name of the PICC is ‘PICC Property and Casualty Company Limited’, where PICC stands for the People’s Insurance Company of China.
the picc is actually the largest property insurance company in china.
u know why i know it so well? cuz i work for it.
im a little bit perplexed,u know,is this company really a nuisance 2u,ben?
Micah
said,
May 10, 2007 at 11:29 pm
Where CCTV is pronounced “seh seh tee wei”.
Heilong
said,
May 24, 2007 at 7:44 am
Yes as James Chiang has said I have only heard XP in china being refared too as “Char Pi”. I also never heard of a WC until I came to China and Im from a European country. It took me even longer to find out what the WC actually meant.
Shanghai Roundeye
said,
May 29, 2007 at 4:40 pm
TIC – This Is China
A term used when encountering something funny, unusual, frustrating, and/or so completely absurd that it can only mean you are in the PRC.
For example, the first time I went to the new Entry/Exit Bureau in Pudong (the east side of Shanghai) and saw a sign on a door of this very new and stylish building proclaiming “Entrance for Disfigured Persons”
Katherine
said,
August 1, 2007 at 1:41 pm
pk you should ask the Hu’nan satellite TV. i think PK was created in their “super girl singing competition”超级女生 like elimination game, the one who wins the less votes(from the nationwide text messages ) and the one who was evaluated the worst by the professional judges, will stand in the PK platform,then a sepical group of voters will choose which one can be promoted，and continue the competetion, In this case, one PK the other, and the who being PKed will lose the game, I hope you guys can understand me.
Have a good day !