Millions share new Chinese character “duang”

A new word is taking the internet by storm in China - but no one knows quite what it means.

在中国，一个新词席卷了整个网络，但是没人知道该字究竟是什么意思。

The character "duang" is so new that it does not even exist in the Chinese dictionary. But it has already spread like wildfire online in China, appearing more than 8 million times on China’s micro-blogging site Weibo, where it spawned a top-trending hashtag that drew 312,000 discussions among 15,000 users. On China’s biggest online search engine Baidu, it has been looked up almost 600,000 times. It’s been noticed in the West too, with Foreign Policy seeing it as a "break the internet" viral meme - like a certain Kim Kardashian image, or a certain multicoloured dress.

“duang”是个新字，还未收录至中国字典。但在网络上迅速传播开来，该字微博上出现了800万多次，与它相关的头条吸引了15,000用户，并有312,000评论。中国最大搜索引擎百度上，对该字的搜索次数已经超过600,000次。此外，它还吸引了西方国家的注意。《外交政策》表示它“打破了网络”流行文化因子，就像是金·卡戴珊的照片或者是五彩服饰。

But what does it mean?

但是它的意思究竟是什么呢？

"Everyone’s duang-ing and I still don’t know what it means! " said Weibo user Weileiweito.

微博用户Weileiweito说：“大家都在用‘duang’，但是我还是不知道它究竟是什么意思。”

Another user asked: "Have you duang-ed today? My mind is full of duang duang duang."

另一个用户问道：“今天你duang了吗？我的脑子里全是duang，duang，duang。”

"To duang or not to duang, that is the question," wrote user BaiKut automan.

“Duang或不duang，这是个问题。”用户BaiKut automan写到。

"Duang" seems to be an example of onomatopoeia, a word that phonetically imitates a sound. It all seems to have started with Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan, who in 2004 was featured in a shampoo commercial where he said famously defended his sleek, black hair using the rhythmical-sounding "duang". The word resurfaced again recently after Chan posted it on his Weibo page. Thousands of users then began to flood Chan’s Weibo page with comments, coining the word in reference to his appearance.

“Duang是个拟声词，用来模仿声音。该字似乎源于香港动作之星成龙。在2004年拍摄的洗发水广告中，他说道乌黑亮泽的头发时，使用了duang这个富有节奏的词。成龙再次在微博晒出之后，该字迅速走红。数千名用户在成龙微博下评论，并因此造出了新字。”

The word appears to have many different meanings, and there’s no perfect translation, but you could use it as an adjective to give emphasis to the word that follows it. A kitten might be "duang cute", for example. Or you might be "very duang confused" by this blog.

Duang似乎有很多不同的意义，还没有适当的翻译，你可以将该字用作形容词，强调之后的词。小猫可能是“duang 可爱”。或者说你对该微博感到“duang困惑”。

For readers of Chinese characters, the Jackie Chan theme is also apparent from the quirky way in which the word is written: a combination of Chan’s names written in Chinese.

但对于认识汉字的读者来说，成龙的签名也很奇怪，因为“成”“龙”两字被组合到了一起。

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来源:互联网爱语吧作者:Annie