China’s top buzzwords and internet slang of 2023

The National Language Resources Monitoring and Research Center at Beijing Language and Culture University yesterday published its annual list of top internet buzzwords of 2023. To get more news about yyds meaning, you can visit shine news official website.

“Big data analysis” of over a billion online posts and forum discussions from the Chinese internet in 2023 was reportedly used to decide on the final list, but it’s clear from the selection that the artificial intelligence tool used has a good understanding of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Separately, the magazine Yǎowén Jiáozì published its year-end list of “popular buzzwords” . Yaowen Jiaozi is a magazine founded in 1995 that publishes stories about the the misuse and abuse of language in Chinese society. Its name is variously translated as “Correct Wording,” “Verbalism,” and “Chewing Words.”

The Yaowen Jiaozi list does not claim to be created by big data, but rather from reader suggestions, online polling, and selection by specialists.

It is a more interesting list.

Below are the words in both lists, with the phrases or words that made it to both lists at the top. Each entry shows which list it’s in: The National Language Resources Monitoring and Research Center is abbreviated to CNLR, and Yaowen Jiaozi to YJ.
YYDS is an acronym for the Chinese phrase “eternal god” (永远的神 yǒngyuǎn de shén). Internet users use it to praise their favorite athletes or celebrities in a way similar to the American slang “GOAT” (Greatest of All Time).

YYDS was a trending word on social media during the Tokyo Olympics this summer, celebrating the wins of Team China, including the country’s first gold won by Yáng Qiàn 杨倩, the three stunning “perfect 10” dives of 14-year-old Quán Hóngchán , and the sprinting performance of Sū Bǐngtiān .
Double Reduction Policy
The Double Reduction Policy is the shorthand name for the policy announcement made in July, “Suggestions on further reducing the burden of homework and off-campus training for students in compulsory education.”

It aims to increase the quality of education but reduce the pressures on overworked school kids.

Even though its 30 measures to rein in the education sector were announced nearly six months ago, the Double Reduction Policy was a trending word as recently as this week while its implications continue to play out in China’s education sector.

Lying flat
Lying flat, or lying flat-ism , first appeared on the Chinese internet in June this year as a reaction of China’s youth to another social phenomenon in China — involution (内卷 nèijuǎn), or intense economic competition for ever scarcer resources.

To lie flat is to choose to escape involution and high-pressure city life, to disengage from the intense social competition of China’s 996 work culture, and to opt for a life of low consumption and little social interaction.

The sting of the implicit social criticism of the word is removed in the National Language Resources Monitoring and Research Center’s buzzword list, which describes tǎngpíng as more of a temporary pause, rather than complete disengagement, an opportunity to gather energy before taking off again.

Tǎngpíng is also in the Yaowen Jiaozi list. Its take on the word is similar — as a way to “recharge and prepare to fight better tomorrow.” But it also adds that tǎngpíng is a way for young Chinese to vent their frustrations at the pressures of life and the high levels of “involuted” competition, and that “lying-flatters” understand that lying down is no way to win.