The Chinese word for “Idea”
I spent most of 2014 swimming in the Shenzhen startup scene. As entrepreneurialism continues to take root in China, the lingua franca of Mandarin is slow to catch up. Language is a fluid, ever evolving organism that always follows the path of least resistance.
There is no suitable word for “Idea” in the Chinese language, yet. Of course there are certain words such as 想法 Xiǎngfǎ Thought, 主意 Zhǔyì Intention, 点子 Diǎnzi Point, 概念 Gàiniàn Concept, but all these words fall short of clearly defining and describing the type of thinking that takes place in a startup context. The startup context is theact of coming up with something new that the market doesn’t already have and turning that “Idea” into a reality.
Not to say that inventive ideas don’t exist in China, that’s not the case. There are certainly lots of people in China scheming new ideas and ways to do things. There just lacks a word to describe that process. Instead, the Chinese language has naturally adopted the English word “Idea” as a loan word pronouncing it 艾迪亚 Ài dí yà to get their “Idea” across. Meta, meta, meta, meta, meta….
Don’t believe me? I come bearing evidence. Here is a promo video for Shenzhen’s premiere startup competition, Startup Salad. I launched a product/ team/company from this event back in 2014 so they brought me on as a 用户心声 Yònghù xīnshēng User Testimonial to extoll the awesomeness of the event. Watch the video below and you’ll see what I mean.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHnQ200oGNI
1:07 This guy speaking was the founder of a little app called 脸萌 Liǎn méng Cutie Face that allows you to make a pixelated profile picture. The app became red hot with millions of downloads in only a few short weeks. Funding soon followed, but unfortunately the cool factor and novelty of the product wore off just as quickly as it had ascended.
1:44 Here’s where I come in. Even while speaking in Chinese, not only do I say “Idea“ in English, but I also pronounce it like a Chinese person would (subconsciously of course).
There are plenty of examples of loan words penetrating the English language. French words flooded the America in the 18th and 19th Century as more travelers and expatriates traveled abroad and brought back French philosophy with them. Rendezvous anyone?
But Chinese, and Mainland in particular, is such a rigid language environment to penetrate that this “Idea “ word sticks out like a tongue stuck to a frozen flag pole.
There are a handful of Startup phrases that are taking China by storm
创客 Chuàng kè Maker
创业 Chuàngyè Startup
创新 Chuàngxīn Innovate
创B wantraprenuer * I made this one up. Hope it sticks.
It’s kind of like the word “paradigm” and “disrupt” in the US startup scene. You use it so much, it looses meaning.
And like the menu says, evolve or die. The true startup mantra.
