Chinese Internet buzzwords: part I

Freestyle

"Can you freestyle?" has become an immensely popular phrase on China's social network thanks to Chinese pop singer and actor Kris Wu.

Wu, 27, recently appeared on reality TV show The Rap of Chinaas a judge.

Each time Wu had to choose the winner, he had just one question for the contestants: "Can you freestyle?"

The pop star's humorous catchphrase was quickly adopted by Chinese netizens. Many began to follow him and use "freestyle" wildly on social media platforms like WeChat and Sina Weibo.

Duang

If you want to express something so unbelievable that it must have been a special effect, you have a new word to add to your vocabulary.

It's "Duang", an onomatopoetic word which doesn't correlate with any particular Chinese character and refers to special effects.

A video parody adapted from a shampoo commercial featuring Hong Kong actor Jackie Chan went viral online, leading Internet users to coin the word.

"Duang" has now become one of the hottest hashtags on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like Chinese social networking site amid a frenzy of posts imitating Jackie Chan's speech in different scenarios.

Prehistorical powers（洪荒之力）

The internet meme emerged when Chinese swimmer Fu Yuanhui realized that she had achieved her personal best performance in the women's backstroke semi-final at the Rio Olympics. She commented that, "I've used up prehistorical powers."

Chinese legends say a huge flood once destroyed everything on earth after the planet was just born. Prehistorical powers suggest such natural forces, great enough to nearly destroy the world.

Ge You slouching（葛优瘫）

A stage photo of Chinese actor Ge You went viral on social media in July. It was taken from a previous comedy he acted in, where he is slouched on a sofa. The picture spawned a wave of good-humored imitations as people nowadays are under great living and working pressure, and sinking into a sofa lazily and mindlessly can be a way to relax.

Small goal（小目标）

When commenting on some young people's dreams of becoming the wealthiest person in the world, China's richest businessman Wang Jianlin said during a television programme, "The direction is correct. But at first you'd better set a reachable small goal, for example, I can start with earning only 100 million."