Chinese Urban Dictionary - Chenghuiwan
By Mia Li
If globalization is bringing about a clash of civilizations, China’s urbanization is bringing about the clash of rural folk and urbanites. For decades, the rural population was tied to the fields of the countryside by China’s hukou system, while the city population reaped most of the benefits of China’s economic development. Since the early 90s, the urbanites had skyscrapers, a mall on every street corner, KTVs and nightclubs. The countryside, however, stayed very much the same or, in some cases, became bleaker.
Every day, more and more agricultural types are drawn to the glamour of cities. Being young and restless, these migrants are amazed at how the city kids live. They wear designer clothes, spend the average yearly rural salary on one night of KTV and have entertainment options beyond their imagination. In response, millions of migrant workers summed up their emotion in the phrase: ‘you city folks know how to have fun,’ or chenghuiwan for short. They cry ‘chenghuiwan’ when rich kids wreck brand-new Ferraris, hold fancy balls in 5-star hotels or go off on exotic cruises.
But the phrase has also been adopted by urban kids – specifically those at the bottom of the social ladder wishing to comment on the actions of the social classes above. It is now simply a response to stupid and costly upper class absurdities – because everyone is poor and rural in comparison. It may be uttered in response to costly activities (such as having a birthday party on a private island) or just plain stupidity (such as breaking your leg playing hoverboard polo).
China’s economic growth may be slowing, but the widening gap between rich and poor is not. Until it does, we will hear calls of ‘chenghuiwan’ as the collective sigh of poor kids working 12 hours a day while hearing about some rich kid’s yacht party gone awry.
By day, Mia Li is a news reporter in Beijing; at night, she tries to turn that news into standup comedy.
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