新词新译：变脸/剧透狂/扫货/名分/心水/轧山湖/戆大/黑手机

变脸
face-lift, change the look
The term means cosmetic surgery. It also refers to the complete renovation of certain places or buildings. Shanghai's Wujiang Road, which is famous for its snack vendors, will receive a face-lift and become a fashion street in the near future.

剧透狂
spoiler junkie
This term refers to people who are addicted to learning plots of TV or movies before watching them. But they may accidentally tell their friends about the ending of the movie, thus taking away all the excitement and suspense.

扫货
shopping spree
With the upcoming Christmas and New Year's Day, most stores in the city have already begun the annual sales season by offering big discounts. As a result, some customers plan to start their shopping spree in the manner of "sweeping away the goods," as the term means.

名分
birthright, given status
The word usually refers to the status a mistress seeks from her lover or an illegitimate child seeks from her biological father. These days, people often use it to mean an official status that a person or organization deserves.

心水
favorite
This term originally meant "idea," "thinking" or "mood" in Buddhist scriptures and ancient poems. Now, Cantonese as well as many people in other parts of the country use it to describe anything or anybody that wins your heart.

轧山湖
chat casually
The colloquial expression in Shanghai dialect means chewing the rag or shooting the breeze. In different localities, there are different terms for chatting idly, such as "kandashan" in Mandarin in northern China and "bailongmenzhen" in Sichuan Province in southwest China.

戆大
gander
This word is a typical example of Chinglish expressions used in Shanghai dialect. The local pronunciation of the word is quite similar to the English word "gander." The term is used to insult someone's intelligence.

黑手机
unlicensed cell phone
Unlicensed cell phones in China are a big family which includes millions of smuggled and refurbished cell phones. Illegal vendors or producers make huge profits by selling them, which are assembled based on used fittings or those smuggled from overseas. Many domestic mobile phone makers are complaining these cheaper unlicensed cell phones have eaten away their market shares.

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