GLOSSARY

Words worth knowing

The customs, titles and turns of phrase that Chinese dramas take for granted, explained in a few sentences each.

New this week

Idiom嘴损心软zuǐ sǔn xīn ruǎn'sharp mouth, soft heart': caring shown as needlingZui sun xin ruan describes someone whose words cut while their intentions are kind: the teasing, scolding and backhanded remarks are how th…
Other家国jiāguó'family and country': one's household and the nation as a single bondJiaguo joins 家 (family, home) and 国 (country) into one idea: a household's fate is bound up with the nation's, so loving one means serving…
Fandom slang人设rénshè'persona': the image a character, or a star, is built to projectRenshe, short for 人物设定 (character setting), is the persona a character is written to carry: the traits, backstory and moral line the audien…
Dialect · Northeastern不差钱bù chàqián'not short of money': what families tell the doctor so that cost will not hold back treatmentLiterally 'not short of money'.
Industry热度rèdù'heat': a streaming platform's own popularity index for a showRedu, literally 'heat', is the popularity score a Chinese streaming platform computes for a show from its own data, such as plays, searches…
Industry追剧日历zhuījù rìlì'binge calendar': a platform's poster of which episodes drop on which daysA zhuiju rili is the update schedule a streaming platform posts for a series, usually a poster for each week showing which episodes come ou…

Every word so far 115 terms

Bigger words come up in more of our articles and dramas; red ones are new this week. Filter them below.

Pick a kind or a letter to see those words with their meanings.