| Abstract: | Recently, the number of new words and buzzwords in Chinese borrowed from Japanese has exceeded vocabulary from other languages including English and French etc., showing a obvious trend of Japanization. Most of these new words were firstly borrowed, adapted and used by the young and later quickly spread via the Internet, among which some are frequently used by the mainstream media and finally accepted by the public with fixed connotation. Since most of these words are not included in dictionaries, they often cause communication difficulty and misunderstanding between people of different ages and social groups. Meanwhile, these new words and buzzwords become the target of severe criticism due to their clear Japanese characteristics and the widespread belief that they are the result of cultural invasion. With a case study of the word “yan”, this paper attempts to explore the Japanization of new words and buzzwords popular in modern China and the causes behind this trend to promote proper understanding of this trend so that it can provide help on proper use of modern Chinese language. |
