It's a glossary of Chinese online slang, but by using characters and English they seem to have developed a particularly rich code. For instance, this is the Chinese character for convex - 凸. You'll see below how it's been given new meaning. Some are terms we can all relate to even if we don't have an equivalent in English.
As I poked around the website, I realized there's a lot more to it than a glossary. It's a good way to get a sense of what's happening in China's cyberspace.
"chinaSMACK provides non-Chinese language readers a glimpse into modern China and Chinese society by translating into English popular and trending Chinese internet content and netizen discussions from China’s largest and most influential websites, discussion forums, and social networks."It says it started this way:
"Started in July 2008, chinaSMACK began as a personal project for Fauna (coyly pictured above), a young Shanghainese girl committed to improving her English language skills by translating the Chinese internet stories, pictures, and videos that were popular online. Despite English being taught to nearly every schoolchild in China, she knew her English would never be functional without daily practice.
She hopes you’ll never go back and judge her earliest translations."Of course, this is just one little window and doesn't represent everything but it's part of a much bigger picture. I did check with a Chinese friend who said what he saw rang true.
I'll just offer some tidbits from the glossary. Here's one we could start using:
I can think of a couple of situations where some people would have used this in the US:
We've all been in this situation.
Remember convex (above)?
Calling out online shills:
And again:
chinaSMACK looks like an interesting site overall to see what is happening on Chinese internet.
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