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限购令(xiàn gòu lìng)
restriction on house purchase
The term refers to a regulation by 11 cities' governments that forbids residents from buying more than one or two homes within a certain period of time with an aim to curb speculation in the housing market and help more people purchase affordable houses.
直升机父母(zhí shēng jī fù mǔ)
helicopter parent
A helicopter parent is a person who pays extremely close attention to his or her child or children, in a bid to protect them at any place at any time, like a helicopter hovering above the child's head and rarely out of reach whenever he or she is needed.
赖班族(lài bān zú)
office dwellers
It refers to those who linger at their offices after official work hours, most of whom are in the country's first-tier cities. Some lingerers are demanded to work overtime, some choose to evade traffic congestion during peak hours and some people, mainly living alone, are not willing to go home and prefer to kill time in the office.
神马(shén mǎ)
what
The term literally means "magical horse." Its pronunciation is similar to the word "what" in Chinese. It became popular after an online writer used the word to replac the correct characters of what ("什么") in an ultra-popular Internet posting during this year's National Day holiday. It is becoming almost the standard writing of "what" in Chinese cyberspace.
Spread rumors, defame, slander
Wildfire and grass together have found their way into many Chinese sayings and even poems, such as "Wildfire can't burn them out, next spring they'll grow back again," "A little spark may kindle a great fire" and "starting a wildfire" as in this Shanghai colloquial phrase.
During early spring outings in this area, some people tend to start a wildfire by lighting the grass in the field that has withered and dried during the winter. The fire spreads very fast.
The fast-spreading fire can be quite spectacular, particularly at night. For the fire starters, it's just for fun, but sometimes it can lead to disasters.
Later, locals began to use the term 放野火 or "starting a wildfire" to describe the act of spreading rumors, which many believe travel even faster than the wildfire.
Today, the phrase may also be used to mean bad-mouthing or vilifying someone by spreading rumors about the person.