Tsinghua University senior Han Yanjun, a worshipped “Study God.”

Yesterday, tweets and pictures of a cute American teenager scanning items for customers in Target went viral and #AlexFromTarget became a trending hashtag on Twitter as well as other social media in the U.S. Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, a Chinese young man became as famous as, if not more so than, Alex from Target, on social media, although for very difference reasons. On Sina Weibo, the hashtag #WorshippingTsinghuaStudyGod (in ZH) occupied the top of the trending topics yesterday, and a page hosted by People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the CPC, is dedicated to it, attracting tens of millions of viewers. The young man in the center of this public attention, Tsinghua University senior Han Yanjun, may not be as cute as Alex (or is he?), but he is sure smarter than most of his peers. One of the most viral weibos on the topic, posted by the People’s Daily, reads:

[Stop claiming you have a solid math and sciences foundation. . .] Yesterday at the defense of Tsinghua 2014 Special Award, the transcript of Han Yanjun, a senior in the Department of Electronic Engineering, was shown, and some students said, “The result of the defense is really not important anymore. Look at the photo below, and I think it says a lot.”

A photo is attached to the weibo, which shows a powerpoint slide projected on a screen that lists the student’s perfect grades for the core courses required in his major.

The “Study God” weibo from the People’s Daily

To those who haven’t experienced the brutal competition that Chinese youth are faced with in their education, it seems absurd that a college student should make national news solely because of his perfect grades, let alone be crown as a “Study God.” However, anyone who has experienced or witnessed such pressure will know exactly why such a academically successful student is set up publicly as a sort of demigod for students and parents to worship. As academic performance is an overwhelmingly dominant criterion in students’ evaluation that determines the quality of college education they receive and their future career opportunities, Chinese students, their parents, and their teachers put enormous emphasis on exams and grades.

The most notorious hoop that most high school graduates have to jump through is the college entrance exam. For many students, from elementary school through high school, all those years of hard studying all comes down to this one exam. Although college admissions have been growing exponentially since 1999, and since 2008, the number (in ZH) of high school graduates who participated in the college entrance exam has declined (due to, among other factors, an increasing number of students seeking college education overseas), the exam remains extremely competitive. According to the latest available records (in ZH), in 2012, 9.15 million high school graduates took the college entrance exam, and 6.85 million, or 75 percent, were admitted. The admission rate does not seem low, but, due to the vastly varied quality of education across colleges and universities, high school students are competing with each other for the few spots in better universities that will give them an edge when they go on to the increasingly competitive job market after graduation. For rural students, especially, getting a college education and landing a job in the city is not only a way to escape the fate of low wage jobs as those that tens of millions of migrant workers have, but an opportunity to change their resident status from rural to urban and have access to many resources and services that are unavailable to the rural population.

In any case, you get the picture. Academic competition is fierce in Chinese schools and universities. In addition, unlike in the U.S., for instance, where students’ grades are considered privacy and not for disclosure without students’ consent, in China, the competition is done publicly, where students’ grades are published in school and students are often ranked according to their grades. Top-ranked students are praised by teachers and revered by students and their parents, and those on the bottom and their parents are often shamed. Such public ranking of students according to their grades puts even more pressure on not only students, but their parents as well. In fact, academic pressure is a leading cause of suicides among youth in China, where youth suicide rate is higher than any other country in the world (see some of the reports here, here, and here, in ZH).

In this context, the state sanctioned celebration of a “Study God” no longer seems that strange. However, the term “Study God” itself is no ingenious invention of the People’s Daily. Rather, it is a term coined by the tormented and self-mocking Chinese students. Besides, the term is not one of a kind, either, but one of an array of terms that characterize different types of students based mainly on their academic performances, while addressing, at times, some nuanced characteristic demeanors of the students in each category. The Beijing Youth Daily summarized some of these terms:

• Study maniac (学魔, xuémó): They are obsessed with studying, unable to live without doing exercises in their workbooks.
• Study Master (学霸, xuébà): They’re highly intelligent, social, and well adjusted. Good at everything, they’re born with charisma and class.
• Study God (学神, xuéshén): They’re tall and handsome/beautiful, spirited, and aloof. They’ve gone through countless advanced workbooks yet still are able to keep the cool with little effort.
• Study Punk (学痞, xuépî): They sleep in class, and fucking around outside class, yet they always get high grades.
• Study Plebeian (学民, xuémín): With average intelligence, they worship Study Masters but despise Study Scums (see below) and the ranks below them. They only have one belief, that one day, they’ll surpass Study Masters, for which they work extra hard.
• Study Imbecile (学弱, xuéruò): They burn the late night oil all the time, frail, unable to bear the pressure for long.
• Study Ash (学渣, xuézhā): Half of their intelligence has been burned in studying. They work hard, but never succeed.
• Study Disabled (学残, xuécán): They’re completely burned by studying. They’re in much pain and unrecognizable from the torment of studying.
• Study Scum (学沫, xuémò): They always feel lacking in intelligence, but they’re not hard working either, getting by each day, hoping to get something for nothing.
• Study Water (学水, xuéshuî): Regarding them, intelligence is no longer relevant. They’ve given up long ago.

Certainly, a hierarchy is assumed in such a lexical invention. Indeed, some of the terms are quite humiliating and it is not hard to imagine the damages they can do to kids who are labeled with them. On the other hand, one cannot help being amazed by the kids’ sense of humor under such pressure to perform. Even the most derogatory terms among them have been used by kids in such self-mocking ways that express no other than their resistance and rejection to an educational system they resent, for good reasons perhaps.

On a final note, one may not see many high school students working in retail stores in China, saving money for his first car or the next iPhone, like Alex, since most of the Chinese kids are hard at study, stuck between the pages of their textbooks, notebooks, and workbooks. However, Americans may see more and more Han Yanjuns landing in graduate schools in American universities after they graduate from Tsinghua University, Peking University, or other top Chinese universities. After all, more than a quarter (in ZH) of undergraduates from Tsinghua and Peking University went on to attend graduate schools overseas after they graduated in 2013. As to Han Yanjun, word on the street (actually, according to the People’s Daily, in ZH) says that a professor in Stanford has remarked that he “has exceeded the requirements for a Ph.D. student.” I guess one would hardly expect anything less than that from a “Study God.”

Extremely popular, “Oh my Lady Gaga” is only one of the most popular “Chinglish” (Chinese English) cyber expressions Chinese netizens have created and used in original ways. The expression mentioned before, “outman,” is also among this category, meaning someone who is out of fashion or trend. The following are some of these popular expressions:

“Geilivable” is a word coined from “geili” in Chinese, a new cyber expression itself meaning “impressive,” “cool,” “strong,” “exciting.” etc. Some also add prefixes to “geilivable” to create more words. With prefix “hen,” meaning “very” in Chinese, “hengeilivable” means “very impressive,” “very cool,” “very strong,” or “very exciting.” Similarly, “ungeilivable” means “unimpressive,” “lame,” “weak,” or “dull.” A word that has similar meaning as “geilible” is “nuibility.” The word is based on an older Chinese slang, “niubi,” meaning “impressive.” “Nuibility” thus means “impressive” or “impressiveness.”

Another Chinglish word is “antizen.” It refers to college graduates who share a small apartment with several roommates, working hard, yet making little money. With the rocketing housing prices in Chinese cities and increasing living expenses, young people in China are under tremendous pressure. In this expression, a strong sense of irony is created by combining “ant,” a minute animal thought to be hardworking yet without individuality, and “citizen,” an English word that entails entitlement, civil rights, and liberty. This word is an ingenious expression of the frustration, helplessness, and resilience of Chinese young people.

Of course, not all of the words are of political connotation. For instance, Chinese netizens often use “foulsball” to refer to soccer (football). Soccer is the most popular sports in China. Ironically, not only the Chinese soccer team has been a weak team no matter how much money has been spent on building it, but the whole soccer scene in China is often plagued by cheating, bribery, gambling, and other scandals. The word “foulsball” is thus invented by Chinese netizens to express their anger and dissatisfaction about Chinese soccer.

Another word, “smilence,” means “smiling silently.” It’s used in a situation where the parties engaged in a conversation understand each other without explicitly saying anything. In a censored public space, although it seems to be a choice when there’s no choice, “smilence” can be a powerful way of expression that protects netizens from censorship while still gets the point across. Interestingly, “smilence” reminds me of the stereotype of Chinese people in the U.S., who smiles in response to anything others say. I wonder if this term has a bit of self-mocking Chinese humor as well.

As English has becoming “Globish,” as Rober McGrum puts it, it has also been changed by non-English speakers across the world. I wonder how much of these Chinglish vocabulary will become part of Globish. With more and more English speaking expatriates living in China, Chinglish words may also be increasingly used outside China. In fact, this might well be happening already (see “Geilivable Stretches,” “nuibility” in Urban Dictionary). As some conservative Chinese are calling for “clean” Chinese language online, I’m sure some English speakers won’t be too thrilled about the non-standard usage of English, let alone the funky “foreign” words that are becoming “English.” What do you think?

P. S. Something for fun.

During my research, I came across this song titled “Oh My Lady Gaga” by independent song writers Laomao and Lai Weifeng. The song is about frustration of a young man, a “80hou” (one born in the 1980s), who is trying to establish himself and find a girl to get married.

http://www.yinyuetai.com/video/player/75342/v_0.swf

Oh My Lady Gaga

I was born in the 80’s, almost 30 years old 我是80后 飞速奔三

From 9 am to 9 pm, I work dully 朝九晚九 呆滞的上班

Make half of 6000 each month 每月工资只有6000的一半

Have to save and take girls out 还得省吃俭用 请女生吃饭

My friends play Three Kingdoms to kill time  朋友消遣 都玩三国杀

I can only read newspapers and do yoga 我只能看看报纸 练一练瑜伽

Research on the unpredicted housing prices 研究每日高深难测的房价

After hard thinking, I realized I have to ask mom and dad for help 苦思冥想 最后只能求助爸妈

Oh my Lady Gaga oh my Lady Gaga

Mom and dad said I’m not ugly at all 爸爸妈妈说我一点都不丑

Oh my Lady Gaga oh my Lady Gaga

Sure I can find a good girlfriend 一定可以找到好的女朋友

Oh my Lady Gaga oh my Lady Gaga

Mom and dad said I’m not ugly at all爸爸妈妈说我一点都不丑

Oh my Lady Gaga oh my Lady Gaga

Sure I can find a good girlfriend一定可以找到好的女朋友

Yao yao I don’t know why

You want to married fuerdai (the second generation of a rich family) 你们想嫁富二代

Wao wao very strange 很奇怪

Man turned bad once they have money 男人有钱就变坏

Yao yao I don’t know why

We want to date 我们想要谈恋爱

Wao wao you’re “Outman”

No ability to chase girls  没有泡妞的能耐

Dad asks me when to get married 爸爸问我什么时侯 结个婚

But I only have ID but dont’ have status 但我只有身份证 还没有身份

Plus I look like Tangseng (a respected monk living in Tang Dynasty) 加上自己长相 有点像唐僧

Girls see me and lose their desires 女生看到我 先清净六根

Finally I summon up all my courage and go on a blind date 最后鼓起勇气 来个相亲

To see who can give her heart to me 看看到底有谁 付出真心

But when I get there, every girl wears gold and silver 结果一到现场 每个披银戴金

Finally a girl says something, but she is only asking me how much money I make 总算有妞开口 就问我多少年薪

I ask them what they want in a boyfriend 我问她们择偶 有什么要求？

They say, simple, just love is enough 她们说 简单 爱我就足够

And he’d better have a car and a house 还有最好当然 是要有车有楼

Otherwise where can we be in love for long 不然没有地方 怎么长相厮守

The most important is that he can’t be a womanizer 重要的是心 一定不能花

And he must be willing to take care of my parents 要肯为我爸妈 做牛做马

Also he needs to be good at house keeping, and let me spend all his money 还会持家 钱都让我花

If he’s this type of man, how can I resist marrying him 要是这种男人 我怎么能够不嫁 （啊哈哈哈哈）

Oh my Lady Gaga oh my Lady Gaga

I beg you don’t have these requirements 求求你们不要这样要求

Oh my Lady Gaga oh my Lady Gaga

I walk alone in the streets sadly 独自伤心游走在孤单街头

Oh my Lady Gaga oh my Lady Gaga

I beg you don’t have these requirements 求求你们不要这样要求

Oh my Lady Gaga oh my Lady Gaga

I walk alone in the streets sadly 独自伤心游走在孤单街头

If you want to become her honey, you must be good looking 要成为她的honey 一定要帅

You must be gentle and not making trouble 有绅士风度 不会耍无赖

Give her little surprise and give her brandname things 搞点小surprise 送点名贵品牌

Don’t leak erotic photos or video tapes 只要不公开艳照和录像带

Ok well as I listen I sweat badly 边听边在冒汗

Now to find a wife is harder than winning the lottery 现在找个老婆 比中大奖还难

If you’re not outman in the bank 既然不是银行下棋的奥特曼

You might as well become a transvestite 还不如狠下心 成为一代伪娘

Go to the website for escorts to advance my future 上上淘男网 开拓我的未来

In a minute I can find a rich lady 瞬间被秒杀 找到个富太太

If I can incarnate I will have a contest 如果还能投胎 我要搞个比赛

Everybody compete fairly to become fuerdai 大家竞争上岗 成为富二代

Don’t say that we don’t understand your vanity 别说我们不懂你们要的虚荣

Don’t say we don’t understand your vanity 怎么才能满足你的要求

Ride in a BMW and cry, ride on a bike and smile 坐着宝马哭啊 骑着单车笑啊

How can I satisfy your needs 怎么才能满足你的要求

Don’t say we don’t understand your vanity 别说我们不懂你们要的虚荣

How can I satisfy your needs  怎么才能满足你的要求

Ride in a BMW and cry, ride on a bike and smile 坐着宝马哭啊 骑着单车笑啊

How can I satisfy your needs 怎么才能满足你的要

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