Chinese Mortgage Slaves

In the previous post, we learned 孩奴，which refers to “the slave to the kids”. Today, we are going to introduce another similar word called 房奴(fángnú). It is one of the 171 newly-born Chinese words published by the China Education Bureau. Literally it means “the house’s slaves” or “mortgage slave”.

房奴 (fángnú) refers to a group of people in China who take a loan from the bank and have to spend 30% to 40% of their income to pay off the mortgage. For these people, even though they enjoy the joy of having a house, they have to suffer the pressure of debt, the loss of life quality, etc. They are afraid of being ill, out of job, and have no time to lead a joyful life. To many people, the house is no longer a joy, but a burden, because they have to spare no effort to support the mortgage, to make a living, thus came the word房奴(fángnú). Learn more hot Chinese words through online Chinese course.

From ancient time to nowadays, Chinese people have a rooted tradition –they have always wanted to own their own houses. In Chinese people’s mind, if you want to have a family, you’d better own a house first. Now it is quite common for people to take mortgage loans, although everyone knows that it will take them many years to pay off their housing loan.” People who have very tight budget but still bought a house with the help of loans are called “房奴(fángnú) mortgage slaves.” Chinese tradition of owning a house leads to more and more mortgage slaves in China nowadays.

As is known to all that China has the largest population in the world. Having a dwelling place has always been a dream for those who can’t afford a house. Many people refused to be a slave to the mortgage, they choose to rent or buy “tiny” houses. Some come the word蜗居(wōjū), live like a snail. 蜗居(wōjū) is very popular in conversational Chinese, it comes from the most popular TV series in 2009. It is about a new couple struggling for buying their first houses.”  If you are trying to learn Chinese skype, you can also improve your spoken Chinese by watching this popular Chinese TV drama.