Dictionary

pseudo-Chinese en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˌsuːdəʊ tʃaɪˈniːz/

Etymology

From pseudo- + Chinese, a calque of Japanese 偽中国語.

Meanings

1. (neologism, uncountable) A Japanese humorous written variant which remarkably resembles Chinese by exclusively using kanji.
   • But what exactly is pseudo-Chinese and where did it come from? 2026 March 27, Gnome, 0:45 from the start, in Japan's Fake Chinese Language:
   • Pseudo-Chinese has been floating around the Japanese internet since the early 2000s. But its recent popularity can be traced to the 62-year-old former Japanese cabinet minister — and prolific poster — Kono Taro. In 2019, while serving as Japan’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kono — who has expressed frustration over his repeated failures to learn Chinese — posted a message on his personal Twitter account using pseudo-Chinese: “Had lunch and talked with important people in the Chinese foreign affairs field; packed luggage, going home.” 2025 March 3, Sha Qingqing, “The Japanese App Where Everyone Speaks Chinese (But Not Really)”, in Matt Turner, transl., edited by Cai Yineng, Sixth Tone, archived from the original on 30 May 2026:
   • The Japanese caption at the top right of the first image reads, "When I was texting with my husband in pseudo-Chinese using only kanji". 2023 July 20, Victor Mair, “Pseudo-Chinese conversation of a Japanese couple”, in Language Log (blog), archived from the original on 05 Dec 2023:
   • Pseudo-Chinese, an emergent online language phenomenon blending Chinese, Japanese, emojis, and emoticons, is examined in this study through a translanguaging lens on Weibo. 2026 March 11, Yi Liu, “Abstract”, in Understanding translanguaging creativity on Chinese Weibo: the example of pseudo-Chinese phenomenon:
2. (uncountable) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see pseudo-, Chinese. False or fake Chinese.
   • Creating Pseudo-Chinese Characters and Exploring Their Referential Meanings [title] 2023 August 28, Austin Yip, “Creating Pseudo-Chinese Characters and Exploring Their Referential Meanings”, in Medium, archived from the original on 02 Jun 2026:
   • Over several years in the late 1980s, he painstakingly created 4,000 pseudo-Chinese characters—the number of characters required for literacy in Mandarin—and carved them into wooden blocks. 2016 August 31, Alex Vickery, “Book From the Sky”, in The Alcalde, archived from the original on 20 Jan 2021:

Forms

Translations (2)

yue 偽中國語 /伪中国语 (Japanese similar to Chinese) · cmn 偽中國語 /伪中国语 (Japanese similar to Chinese)