Unofficial Chinese Word of 2018

A newly-created word "qiou" that means "poor-ugly" is all the rage for 2018

Netizens in China have unofficially decided on the word of the year -- and it's a made-up character.

Pronounced "qiou", possibly in the third tone, the character has the word 穷 (qiong2) on top, and 丑 (chou3) below.

One netizen created a poem using the word "qiou"

The first character 穷 means "poor", while 丑 is an adjective that means "ugly". Put qiong and chou together and you get -- qiou or "poor-ugly".

Also, the combination of the characters creates the Chinese character 土 (tu3) which means "earth", "soil" or "dust". So put the three together, they could mean "dirt poor and ugly".

Many on Weibo find this new word qiou quite apt, with housing prices so out of reach of the average individual, and the pressures of looking absolutely perfect and beautiful are getting out of hand.

"The time of our youth was a happy one," one netizen poetically writes. "Because it was not yet clear to us at the time how ugly and poor we were."

Chinese media outlet Modern Express has declared qiou as "the character of 2018".

Time to practice writing your qious

Many people use it colloquially to describe themselves in a self-deprecating way by saying, "I'm qiou" or "我qiou" or "I'm so qiou".

While you can't type out the newly-created word qiou, if it's written out, people know exactly what it means. 

n a time of staggering house prices and unrealistic beauty ideals, ‘qiou’ is a character that “suits our time,” according to many on Weibo, who say the character ‘describes their current situation.’

This is original content by What's on Weibo that requires investment. You are free to link to this article. Please identify this website or author when you base content on this source or quote from it. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com to buy additional rights. Copyright (C) https://www.whatsonweibo.com. Read more at: https://www.whatsonweibo.com/the-new-chinese-character-of-the-year-is-dirt-poor-ugly/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axioschina&stream=top

n a time of staggering house prices and unrealistic beauty ideals, ‘qiou’ is a character that “suits our time,” according to many on Weibo, who say the character ‘describes their current situation.’

This is original content by What's on Weibo that requires investment. You are free to link to this article. Please identify this website or author when you base content on this source or quote from it. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com to buy additional rights. Copyright (C) https://www.whatsonweibo.com. Read more at: https://www.whatsonweibo.com/the-new-chinese-character-of-the-year-is-dirt-poor-ugly/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axioschina&stream=top

n a time of staggering house prices and unrealistic beauty ideals, ‘qiou’ is a character that “suits our time,” according to many on Weibo, who say the character ‘describes their current situation.’

This is original content by What's on Weibo that requires investment. You are free to link to this article. Please identify this website or author when you base content on this source or quote from it. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com to buy additional rights. Copyright (C) https://www.whatsonweibo.com. Read more at: https://www.whatsonweibo.com/the-new-chinese-character-of-the-year-is-dirt-poor-ugly/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axioschina&stream=top