【原创】英文外来语之“关系、人情和面子”

英文中的外来语多如旧金山街上的流浪汉。

很多法语、意大利语外来词对美国人来说非常熟悉，梵语、印地语外来词稍微生疏，中文最为陌生。但不知不觉地一些中文词汇慢慢被《纽约时报》、BBC、《经济学人》等媒体提及甚至大幅报道， 比如说“关系”、“剩女”、“宅男”和“大妈”。《经济学人》在一篇文章中首次提到“人情”一词（点击”阅读原文“）。但事实上，“关系”、“人情”和“面子”三个词好像是近亲，放在一起更便于西方人理解中国文化。下面是三者关系的简述，下次有老外问这三个词中的任意一词，不妨把这篇直接分享：）

“Pay off renqing (人情, or personal feelings) before you clear debt" is a widely known cultural mantra in China. It says it all how much weight renqing carries in Chinese culture. Unsurprisingly, the Chinese society is also known as the renqing society. To be street-smart in China is to be renqing-savvy; to blend into the Chinese society is to master how to expertly handle renqing. This, however, is no easy task. Most renqing norms are unwritten, and the written ones are constantly evolving. It is a lot of give and take, caculation, geusswork, and guestimate. The learning curve is steep, but it pays off proportionately. One perk? Foreigners are more tolerated than the native-born.

Actually, renqing is an outgrowth of guanxi (关系), a far better known loan word already admitted to the Oxford online English Dictionary. It has deeper cultural roots than connection, harking back to the Chinese way of ruling--rule of man. While renqing deals with the more delicate and subtle aspect of interpersonal relations, guanxi emphasizes the macro and utilitarian aspect of the relations. Guanxi is a universal cultural concept, with varying degrees in different cultures; renqing is an idiosyncratic cultural idea born and nurtured in China (It's not impossible that other languages have its equivalent though).

A third word, along with renqing, which will sooner or later attain the same popularity of guanxi is mianzi (面子), literally face. Knowing how to enjoy, give, and save mianzi is an important lesson anyone wishing to get around swimmingly in China has to master.

其他英文中的中文外来词：http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Chinese_origin

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