A set of buzzwords has grown up to describe this specialized cohort. Among the most popular terms? Netizen, or in Chinese, wangmin -- a portmanteau that literally means "a citizen of the Internet." Although Web users in China naturally prefer the non-English phrase to refer to themselves, the terms are synonymous and each is a direct translation of the other. (For our purposes, I'll stick with netizen, as it's more familiar to English-speaking audiences.)



Although the word has gradually fallen out of use around the rest of the world, China -- along with people outside China writing about it -- appear to be the exception. The term is invoked about as casually and unironically as Americans say blogger or gchat.

"Chinese Netizen Proposes Mourning Official Motorcades," reads one recent headline from the New York-based Epoch Times. "Chinese Netizens Decry Visa Waiver Plan," says another from The Taipei Times. And here's the opening paragraph of a story by China Daily, China's state-run English newspaper:

A college student has asked the Ministry of Railways (MOR) to disclose the bidding process for its costly ticket booking system, with Chinese netizens backing his demand.

To Western ears, this professional use of slang comes across as somewhat alien -- and generally meets with laughs. Netizen ranked among the top three words Time.com vowed to ban this year if it could. In an English-speaking context, the word is considered a bit too twee, as though it'd find more comfortable bedfellows in old jargon like hyperlink and The Facebook -- anachronisms from a time before Justin Timberlake's Sean Parker got his two cents in. If you thought netizen sounded archaic before reading this, you're not far off. In the same year netizen first appeared, Steve Jobs and company invented the Mac and the Soviet Union decided to boycott the Summer Olympics.

Even in China, the word has grown a little tiresome. China Daily staffers exasperated with the term recently considered stripping it from the stylebook, and at least some readers agreed with the idea. In an unscientific poll on the paper's forums, 56 percent of -- ahem -- netizens said the phrase was "confusing or annoying."

If netizen provokes such ire (at least in English-language discussions) even in the country that's fondest of it, what explains its nearly 30-year lifespan?

The first answer is that as shorthand goes, it's fairly effective. The literal translation breaks down as wang (net) and min (citizen). If the purpose of language is to communicate concepts efficiently, then this fulfills the mission rather well.

But however you choose to say it, netizen is more than a bit of useful slang. From the word choice it's possible to infer, in reverse, a broader symbolism that could be a clue to its longevity. Whether it's intentional or purely coincidental, it makes a great deal of sense for a digital community that leans on coded language and metaphor as a matter of course in the process of evading free-speech restrictions.