Tuhao and the rise of Chinese bling

A new word has suddenly become wildly popular in China - "tuhao" - which loosely translated means "nouveau riche". There have been more than 100 million references to the word "tuhao" on social media since early September.

"土豪"一詞最近在中國迅速躥紅,意思大致相當于"暴發戶".自九月初,該詞在社交媒體上的搜索結果已超過1億條.

It's being used to describe everything from the Communist Party's new People's Daily building, to expensive celebrity weddings full of bling, and the new gold-coloured iPhone.

人民日報的新大樓,名人們的奢豪婚禮,以及新推出的金殼iPhone, 都可以用上這個詞.

In Chinese "tu" means earth, and "hao" means rich. To say someone is tuhao is to imply they come from a poor peasant background, and have made it rich quick - but don't quite have the manners, or sophistication to go along with it. It's like the term "nouveau riche", says Professor Steve Tsang at the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies in Nottingham - but has even more negative connotations, suggesting a certain vulgarity.

漢語中"土"是地的意思,"豪"就是有錢.說某某是土豪,那就是這人出身低賤,突然發了大財,舉止不得體,心中無城府.諾丁漢大學現代漢語研究學院的Steve Tsang教授說,土豪和暴發戶差不多,但是貶義更濃,含粗鄙之意.

"Tuhao" is actually an old word - dating back perhaps as far as the Southern Dynasty 1,500 years ago - but it has always meant something rather different. During the communist revolution, from the 1920s to early 1950s, it was widely used to refer to landholders and gentry who would bully those beneath them.

土豪的歷史算是比較悠久了,可以追溯到大約1500年前的南朝時期.不過,不同時期有不同的含義.從上世紀20年代到50年代初期的革命期間,它廣泛用于指那些恃強凌弱的地主豪紳.

This new usage of the term took off in September after a widely-shared joke about a rich, but unhappy man, who goes to a Buddhist monk for advice, expecting to be told to live a more simple life. The monk replies instead with the phrase: "Tuhao, let's be friends!"

今年九月流行一個段子,說一個郁郁寡歡的有錢人想過簡單的生活,于是問道一和尚.不成想這和尚卻說："土豪,我們做朋友吧！"于是該詞便有了新用法.

Chinese internet users are highly creative in their use of language, and are constantly inventing, and re-inventing words as a way of getting past censorship rules, says Tsang. But in this case, its popularity seems to be down to the fact that it encapsulates China's changing society so well - many people sneer at those with wealth, but are secretly jealous, says Tsang.

中國網民們實在太有才了,把漢字用得妙趣橫生,他們不斷造詞或者給舊詞賦上新意以逃過審查,Tsang教授說.不過,具體到土豪這個詞,它的流行生動地再現了中國當下變化中的社會: 很多人表面上嘲笑有錢人,心里卻十分艷羨.