Today, after reading Langzhong, Sichuan news about the self-funded nucleic acid test for new coronary pneumonia, I lost the last bit of goodwill. Everything has a cost. It doesn’t matter whether nucleic acid testing is charged or free.
We should be more concerned about whether we are the target of protection in this epidemic. From the so-called non-essential (absolute prohibition in actual implementation), non-essential prohibition from leaving the community, campus, city, non-essential out-of-province, and non-essential out-of-country. All sorts of so-called non-essentials constitute shirk, and many become the price.
Perhaps, some people feel that the so-called city closure is too scary. They have created a series of new words, such as dynamic clearing, social clearing, social control, static management, bubble management, global static… Here In the first stage, some people really have no income and need to face the cost of rising prices, so they only choose bridge holes and park seats as shelters. It’s so pitiful. While worrying about their situation, you can imagine your own future situation and feel that life is dark and hopeless.

If you are just ruled, Don’t say anything; keep silent.

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The following is reproduced from:
https://www.nytimes.com/zh-hans/2022/05/12/world/asia/pandemic-words.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20220529094559/https://www.nytimes.com/zh-hans/2022/05/12/world/asia/pandemic-words.html

The full text is as follows:
Notes of Overseas Chinese – From “dynamic clearing” to “room entry and disinfecting“, can you understand the vocabulary of the epidemic?
“Pop-up window”, “control area”, “silent period”, and “dynamic clearing”… During the epidemic, Chinese “new words” emerged one after another, which made people like me feel lost in their native language. I gave myself a self-study course called “Pandemic Vocabulary 101”, but the course was more difficult than I expected.
By Rong Xiaoqing May 12, 2022
Welcome to this issue of “Notes on Overseas Chinese” I am Rong Xiaoqing, a Chinese journalist based in New York. Every Thursday, we will interpret from a Chinese perspective, discuss news hotspots, and analyze the best articles in the Times. Welcome to click here to subscribe or recommend to friends.

My undergraduate major is Chinese, and I worry most about living in the United States for many years because one day, I will not be able to speak my native language. When I returned to China in 2016, I saw a banner slogan in front of a hotel saying, “Focus on the pilot program of replacing business tax with VAT and help supply-side reform” I was “stunned” on the spot. For the first time in my life, I suspected that I might not understand Chinese. . Later, I asked my relatives and friends in China, and I was relieved to learn that they not only did not understand it but also did not intend to understand its meaning.

In the following years, I found more and more unfamiliar slogans and terms in China. Some of them are far from people’s lives and can be ignored for the time being, just like the tax reform such as the “replacement of business tax with value-added tax”. Statements—such as “cleaning up the low-end population” or calling online games a “mental opium”—could mean that tens of thousands of people will lose their homes or jobs because of them, so they have to study hard. During the epidemic, new words were “like the source of Dendrobium, coming out in random places”. Every morning when I open my eyes and open WeChat, the screen is full of “flow tune”, “pop-up window”, “control area”, “silent period”… I can’t find the north, and my anxiety begins to “want” source”. So, I set up a self-study course of “epidemic vocabulary 101″ for myself to catch up.

I almost tried my best to study this course, but I still found the course too difficult. For example, the term “time and space accompany” refers to being in a specific geographic area with a confirmed person for a specific period of time, whether it is a person or a mobile phone signal. So abstract, I had to use the popular song “I blew the evening wind you blew, so we can count as hugging” to speculate on its meaning. However, this method of relying on popular songs is not reliable. For example, using “where has the time gone” to explain the endless isolation of “14+7+7” probably does not match the definition in the official dictionary.

The word “entry to disinfect” refers to entering a room, including private houses, to spray disinfectant water, but in my language structure from childhood to adulthood, the suffix of the word “entry” has always been one of “robbery” and “murder”. class, but this preconceived impression is obviously confusing, and it can only be understood more accurately by reading pictures and reading words. However, the method of reading pictures is not reliable. For example, the “Dabai” in the picture wearing protective clothing from head to toe can easily remind people of the popular Korean drama “Squid Game” wearing almost the same red clothing. The executioner, but the latter is not holding a sprayer, but a submachine gun. And the messy scene of some houses after being sprayed with disinfectant by the “big whites” inevitably reminds people of the mess left after some houses were copied during the Cultural Revolution. But if you explain “room sanitization” in this way, you probably won’t be able to score in the test.

As for phrases like “Beijing is Shanghai” that seem to be misprinted in Chinese, perhaps the best way to understand them is to use English. “shanghai” as a verb in English means “coercion“, and it often appears in the passive form “shanghaied”. It originated in the mid-19th century when American ships bound for the Far East could not recruit sailors and relied on kidnapping to replenish new blood. This is probably in line with the feeling of ordinary people when Shanghai closed the city and other cities took similar measures.

What frustrates me the most is that despite my hard work, I still can’t figure out what “dynamic zeroing” is. Most importantly, I don’t understand what “dynamic” is. Those communities that have survived until the unblocking is still a day away and have returned to the blockade “the first day of 14 days” because one person is “yang”, do not seem to have ” dynamic” ah. It stands to reason that since even the chief executive of Hong Kong, Carrie Lam, said she was not the “initiator” and therefore “can’t explain” the word, I don’t have to worry about it. But on Tuesday, the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said China’s zero-clearing policy was “unsustainable.” He doesn’t know Chinese but clearly knows what “dynamic clearing” means. What reason do I have for not working hard?

What made me even more stressed was that my Chinese friends who didn’t understand “replacement of business tax with VAT” went around and finally understood the meaning of these new words for the epidemic. This also proves once again that to understand the true meaning of language; there is no way to compare it with personal experience.
But none of these are actually the real reasons that have kept me awake in the middle of the night lately. Ai Xiaoming, a Chinese scholar, said when he talked about “killing in the house”: “The word “killing” is full of unprovoked hatred for the virus and full of sense of justice, which brings people to release their passion and participate in it. Opportunities for law enforcement.” This reminds me of the English writer George Orwell once said, “If thought eats language, language can eat thought”. On closer inspection, from Beijing’s “cleaning up of the low-end population” in 2017 to “indoor sterilization” in 2022, the environment and objects seem to be very different. Still, the core and ideas are probably the same.

As a graduate of the Chinese department, it is shameful not to understand my native language, but I am more worried that if this continues, I may not understand China very soon.

中文版：

29/05/2022

今天，阅读到来自四川阆中的关于新型冠状肺炎核酸检测自费的新闻，丧失了最后一丝好感。显而易见，任何事情都需要成本。无论核酸检测收费或免费，都不重要了。
更应当值得被关心的是，在这场疫情中我们是被保护的目标吗？从所谓的各种非必要(实际执行上的绝对禁止)，非必要禁止离开小区，校园，市，非必要出省，非必要出境。各种所谓的非必要构成了推卸责任的工具，而许多人则成为了代价。
或许，有些人觉得所谓的封城太过于令人恐慌，制造出了一系列的新词，比如动态清零、社会面清零、社会面管控、静态管理，气泡管理，全域静止……在这一阶段中，有些人实在是没有收入同时还需要面对物价大幅上升的花销，只有选择了桥洞，公园座椅作为栖身之所。实在是太可怜了，担忧他们的处境的同时，可以设想自己未来的处境，就觉得生活一片灰暗，失去了希望。

什么也不想说，保持沉默

以下内容转载自：

https://www.nytimes.com/zh-hans/2022/05/12/world/asia/pandemic-words.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20220529094559/https://www.nytimes.com/zh-hans/2022/05/12/world/asia/pandemic-words.html
全文如下：
海外华人札记-从“动态清零”到“入室消杀”，你能看懂疫情词汇吗？
“弹窗”、“管控区”、“静默期”、“动态清零”……疫情期间中文“新词”层出不穷，令我这样居住在国外的人颇有在母语中迷失之感。我给自己开设了一门“疫情词汇101”自学课程，但这门课的难度超出了我的预期。
By Rong Xiaoqing 2022年5月12日
欢迎阅读本期“海外华人札记”，我是常驻纽约的华文记者荣筱箐。每周四我们将一起从华人视角解读、探讨新闻热点、品析时报精华文章。欢迎点击这里订阅，或推荐给朋友。

我大学本科专业是中文，在美国生活多年最担心的事就是有一天会说不好母语。2016年回中国时，我在一家酒店门前看到一条横幅标语，上书“聚焦营改增试点，助力供给侧改革” ，当场“晕菜”，人生中第一次怀疑自己可能看不懂中文了。后来去问中国的亲戚朋友，得知他们不仅看不明白，也不打算弄清楚它的意思，这才放下心来。

在之后的这些年里，我发现中国陌生的口号和术语越来越多，有些跟“营改增”这类关于税制改革的说法一样，离人们的生活很遥远，可以暂且置之不理；但也有些表述——比如“清理低端人口”或者称网络游戏是“精神鸦片”——可能意味着数以万计的人们会因它们失去家园或丢掉饭碗，所以只能勉力学习。疫情期间，新词更是如“如万斛泉源，不择地而出”。每天早晨一睁眼打开微信，满屏飞的都是“流调”、“弹窗”、“管控区”、“静默期”……看得我找不着北，内心的焦虑也开始“万斛泉源”。于是，我给自己开设了一门“疫情词汇101”自学课程，以奋起直追。

在这门课的学习中，我差不多用上了浑身解数，但还是发现课程太难。比如“时空伴随”这个词，指的是在特定的时间段与确诊者同处特定的地理范围内超过特定时长，无论是人还是手机信号。这么抽象，我只好借助流行歌曲里那句“我吹过你吹过的晚风，那我们算不算相拥”来揣测它的涵义。但借助流行歌曲这种方法并不靠谱，比如用“时间都去哪儿了”来解释“14+7+7”的无休止隔离，大概也跟官方词典中的定义不符。

“入室消杀”这个词指的是进入包括私宅在内的室内喷洒消毒水，但在我从小到大的语言架构中，“入室”这个词的后缀一直都是“抢劫”、“行凶”之类，但这种先入为主的印象显然让人困惑，那就只能借助看图识字来更准确地理解。但看图识字的方法也不靠谱，比如图片里那些从头到脚身着防护服上阵的“大白”，很容易让人想起前阵子流行的韩剧《鱿鱼游戏》里穿着几乎同款红色服装的行刑手，只不过后者手里拿的不是喷雾器，而是冲锋枪。而一些民宅在被“大白”们入室喷洒消毒水之后的凌乱景象，又难免让人想到文革中一些民宅被抄之后留下的一片狼藉。但如果这样去解释“入室消杀”大概考试中也得不了分。

至于“北京被上海”这样中文里看上去似乎是打印错误的词组，最好的办法也许是借助英文来理解。英文中作为动词的“shanghai”是“胁迫”的意思，常以被动式“shanghaied”出现，源自19世纪中期美国开往远东的航船招不到水手就靠绑架来补充新血。这倒大概很符合上海封城和其他城市采取类似措施时老百姓的感觉。

最让我沮丧的是，尽管我已经努力研读，还是搞不懂什么叫“动态清零”。最关键是搞不懂什么叫“动态”，那些还有一天就熬到解封，又因为有一个人“阳”了而重新回到封锁“14天的第一天”的小区，似乎并没有“动态”啊。按理说，这个既然连香港特首林郑月娥都说她不是“始作俑者”所以”解释不了”的词，我就不必纠结了。但周二，世界卫生组织领导人谭德塞说中国的清零政策是“不可持续的”，他不会中文却显然知道“动态清零”的意思，我还有什么理由不努力呢。

更让我更倍感压力的是，当年我那些不懂“营改增”的中国朋友们兜兜转转最后都懂了这些疫情新词的意思。这也再次证明，想理解语言的真意，什么方法也比不上亲身经历。
但这些其实都不是最近让我半夜睡不着觉的真正原因。中国学者艾晓明谈到“入室消杀”时说：“这一个杀字，满带着对病毒的一种无端之恨，又蒙上满腔的正义感，给人带来了释放激情和参与执法的机会。”这让我想起英国作家乔治·奥威尔曾说的“如果思想侵蚀语言，语言也可以侵蚀思想”。细究起来，从2017年北京“清理低端人口”到2022年“入室消杀”，环境和对象看似迥异，但内核和思想恐怕是一脉相承的。

作为一个中文系毕业生，看不懂母语固然丢脸，但我更担心的是这样下去，我可能很快就看不懂中国了。