新词新译:主旋律/红头文件/火星贴/咸猪手/黄段子/杀手锏/淘浆糊

主旋律
mainstream ideology or trend
The Chinese term borrows from musicology, which literally means the “key melody.” It is now often used to stand for the mainstream (or government-backed) ideology or trend.

红头文件
red-head document
This is a colloquial Chinese term for formal, official documents. They invariably bear the full name of the government or the government department that issues the document and the name is always printed in red on the top of the document’s front page.

火星贴
post from Mars
It refers to posts which are considered very old, have been published online long ago, could be seen everywhere, and are considered out of date by most viewers in a chat room.

咸猪手
wandering hands, groper
Taiwan and Guangdong people refer to a man who tends to pay unwanted sexual attention to a fair lady as “zhuge,” which translates literally as “pig brother.” Hence, the hands (or “feet”) of the man who takes advantage of overcrowding to grope female passengers (or female colleagues in offices) are called xianzhushou.

黄段子
dirty joke, juicy episode
Chinese tend to call anything porn “yellow,” such as “yellow book,” “yellow movie” and “yellow picture.” Here, the Chinese term huangduanzi means literally “yellow episode,” which now often appears in chat rooms, cell phone short message and at dinner tables.

杀手锏
trump weapon
In ancient China, jian was not a very common weapon, but if someone could use it skillfully, it would prove to be a surprisingly decisive one. Today, the Chinese term shashoujian means a trump weapon, which is rarely used before.

淘浆糊
muddle through
This Shanghai slang dates back many decades and has an origin involving tailors and brothels. But today it is frequently used to indicate anyone who tries to muddle through an unfavorable situation by either muddling someone up or blurring the line between right and wrong.

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