Colloquial web jargon in People's Daily raises eyebrows

Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily raised eyebrows this month when it used web jargon in commentaries to reflect the challenging social problems facing China, ahead of the 18th party congress.

A November 3 piece about inspiring progress in China, which ran in a section about the congress, said that the relationship between the public and the government had reached a sensitive juncture, amid pressing social issues such as inequality, social unrest and even riots.

But some readers, particularly microbloggers, appeared to be less interested in the actual message being conveyed than they were in how it was being conveyed, as the column featured two colloquial Chinese phrases, pindie and diaosi.

Pindie refers to young people who live privileged lives, particularly because of wealthy or well-connected fathers who are able to help advance their children's careers, regardless of their abilities. This phenomenon is widely blamed for worsening the social inequality problem.

In contrast, diaosi refers to young people on the opposite end of the social ladder. Most were born after the mid-1980s and have a very different outlook on life than their fathers' generation. They often use the word to describe themselves.

Song Shinan , an online commentator based in Chengdu , Sichuan , said diaosi mainly refers to the poor who have very few opportunities and chances to succeed in China, especially due to stiff competition.

"They aren't recognised by society, but they still want some degree of respect. They have the desire to succeed, but they don't have clear goals and are rather lazy," he wrote in a commentary that ran in The Southern Metropolis Daily last week.