‘This is so skrrrrr’ – creative translanguaging by Chinese micro-blogging users

Rhyming style, persona, and the contested landscape of authentic Chinese hip hop

“…The personae we identified reflect three dimensions of Chinese hip hop authenticity, which further constitute a contested semiotic landscape that could be placed in a wider landscape of new media in China. Recent work has shown that hip hop vocabulary, such as "freestyle," "real," and "skr," has found its way into Chinese netspeak thanks to the show, and that its use has been extended beyond the discussion of hip hop (Zhang & Ren, 2020). Furthermore, the emergence of dialect rappers such as GAI might impart a sense of "modern-ness" to regionalects in China, which are often associated with tradition and a more conservative lifestyle.…”

“…Aside from familiarizing the audience with common hip hop terminology, such as “rhyme,” “flow,” and “freestyle,” it also highlights the importance of rapping in Chinese languages to develop authentic “Chinese hip hop” and “keepin’ it real.” Flew, Ryan, and Su (2019) argued that as a new and innovative cultural product, The Rap of China tested the limits of promoting a foreign cultural form internally in the tightly governed Chinese media but also aimed to disseminate Chinese rap music globally through the performance of ethnic Chinese artists rapping in Chinese languages. Some later works have observed that in everyday communication, people still employ some hip hop‐ and rap‐influenced expressions, such as “real, skr, diss,” which were popularized by The Rap of China (Wang & Song, 2020; Zhang & Ren, 2020). Moreover, the notion of “realness” and “keepin’ it real” as a hip hop mantra was successfully inculcated into Chinese mainstream audiences through this show.…”

Onomatopoeia in Mandarin Chinese (Handbook of onomatopoeia)

“…This stood out because of the unusual syllable type. The second was a loaned onomatopoeia, skr, which stemmed from drifting cars but then quickly got extended to many other domains in online spaces (Zhang & Ren 2022).…”