新華文體 Newspeak

Geremie R. Barmé This essay, ‘New China Newspeak’, was originally published in China Heritage Glossary and then expanded for The China Story Lexicon, which I devised as part of The China Story Project of the Australian Centre on China in the World in August 2012.… Read

褒貶 Evaluations

A ‘moral-evaluative vocabulary’ 褒貶詞 has been a feature of Chinese writing from pre-dynastic times. Over the centuries it developed a rich lexicon that has been adapted by the Communist Party media over some ninety years to guide, as well as limit, public and even private expression.… Read

網語 The Internet

Internet language 網絡用語, or 網語 for short, is the kind of informal, compressed language widely used in electronic communications. Said to have grown with the technologically advance Taiwan Chinese-language Internet 網路 from the 1990s, Sino-Internet language has developed a vast, ever-changing vocabulary, and new language habits among young and old alike.… Read