Chinese internet slang, sign of the times

Chinese social media is in full swing development with new words and expressions popping up and conquering the vast media regularly. The new expressions show the changes and signs of times on the role of China in the world and how Chinese people view the world.

Baizuo 白左 (literally, “white left”) is such a word which has been active on social media since a couple of years. Baizuo can be freely translated as “Social Justice Warrior”. It is a derogatory word for liberal elites, specifically those who are educated and whose “obsession with political correctness” serves only to “satisfy their own feelings of moral superiority,” according to an article by political scientist Zhang Chenchen.

Chinese people in China might use the expression of Baizuo to sneer at the “white left” in Western societies as often they are the ones who emptily berate China, its people, and policies based on headlines and Western centrism, rather than on context, facts and understanding.

The evolution of a language in the signs of times. Baizuo has been adopted in the urban dictionary.

Source : Radii China

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