How do you say "culture shock" in Chinese (Mandarin)?

June 10, 2010 8:11 PM

How do you say/express the idea of "culture shock" in Chinese (Mandarin)? I do speak Chinese, so if you type in pinyin that will be fine. Thanks!
posted by hnk to Writing & Language (6 answers total)

Google Translate seems to think that it is 文化冲击 (wénhuà chōngjī), which translates literally to something along the lines of "culture under attack."
posted by roomwithaview at 8:50 PM on June 10, 2010

Searching the phrase on google.cn yields 4.5 million hits so it should probably work.
posted by roomwithaview at 8:51 PM on June 10, 2010

You also see 文化休克 and that was going to be my answer - I suspect it's more about 'culture shock' as a concept with 文化冲击 describing the actual experience and perhaps a larger clash of cultures.
posted by Abiezer at 8:56 PM on June 10, 2010

Culture under attack seems like it could have a different connotation too though, like liberal values assaulting a conservative culture, if that makes sense?
posted by kylej at 9:27 PM on June 10, 2010

Wikipedia confirms that 文化冲击 is what you want:

文化冲击，又叫文化震惊、文化休克。(英语：culture shock)，是指一个人或者一个组织身处不同国家的文化或不一样的环境中而经受的一种困惑、焦虑的状况，未必会产生严重后果。

No mention of "liberal values assaulting a conservative culture", so I think that "culture under attack" is a mistranslation. For what it's worth, I like the sound of 文化震惊.
posted by jweed at 12:26 AM on June 11, 2010

according to google translate 冲击 can mean: Assault, Pound, Lash, or 'Be under attack' or Charge as a verb. So it probably fits.
posted by delmoi at 5:45 AM on June 11, 2010