Word of the Year 2022 in China

When you are learning Chinese, it is great to keep updated with trending topics and words in China. GoEast’s “Word of the Year” series keeps you with the newest buzzwords and gives you fresh and fun topics to talk about with your Chinese friends and colleagues. 

The most trendy Youtuble-like website in China, Bilibili, and Zhonghua Book Company jointly released the word of the Year 2022 is 优雅（yōuyǎ)， which means”elegant, graceful”. Read more to get to know the origin and practical examples to use the word. 

What is the meaning of the word of the Year 2022?

What is the origin of the word of the Year 2022?

It is said that “elegant” often appears in the form of “elegant, it is too elegant”, this sentence comes from the hit Japanese manga series “Spy × Family”, a supervisor of a prestigious school obsessed with demanding every move of all students and parents be “elegant”, and the spy in the play can always perfectly adapt to every identity, resolve various unexpected crises, and always remain elegant, thus successfully convincing the supervisor.

How to use the word of the Year 2022?

优雅youya is a positive word, so if you want to praise someone who stays calm under tough circumstances, but not in a very formal setting, feels free to use it. Examples are:

老师你得了新冠，还来给我上课，真是优雅啊！

Lǎoshī nǐ dé le xīnguān, hái lái gěi wǒ shàngkè, zhēnshi yōuyǎ a!

Teacher, you got covid, but you still come to the lesson with me. How elegant!

 

早上5点就起床上汉语课，你太优雅了！

Zǎoshang 5 diǎn jiù qǐchuáng shàng hànyǔ kè, nǐ tài yōuyǎle!

You wake up at 5 o’clock in the morning for a Chinese class. You are so elegant!

Further Reading