English – Made in China?

Hell, No!

iPhone, iPad, iMac and MacBook, yes!

They come sailing across the high seas on massive container ships from China.

Au contraire, English was not made in China!

But we owe so many popular English words and expressions to the Chinese.

Let’s start with an interesting expression that’s grown popular in China. I stumbled upon it today in an article on delivery drones and flying cars in China in The Economist (June 14, 2025): low-altitude economy.

The Economist defines low-altitude economy as “a proliferation of airborne devices whizzing around at less than 1,000 meters (far lower than ordinary commercial planes), offering a dizzying array of services.”

Proliferation of electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, advances in electric batteries and popularity of drones for food, blood, mail, package and other deliveries have given a fillip to the low-altitude economy in China.

It seems the low-altitude economy is flourishing in China (projected at $208 billion by the end of 2025) and getting considerable support from the Chinese government. China’s state planning agency has even created a department to support the low-altitude economy.

In the same article, The Economist notes that other growth sectors in China include ice-and-snow economy (winter sports and tourism) and silver economy (anything related to aging).

Here are a few more popular ‘English’ words we owe to China:
Haigui: slang for overseas Chinese returning to the mainland after studying or working abroad
Tea: popular beverage
Kung Fu: a style of martial arts
Feng Shui: Chinese principle to harmonize buildings or sites with their spiritual forces
Liuzhi: an extra-judicial form of detention, particularly for corporate executives suspected of illegal acts (Source: Economist, October 11, 2025, p.61)
Chopsticks: small, slender sticks used by Chinese for eating in lieu of a spoon or fork
Tai Chi: a type of martial art
Ginseng: Chinese root
Cha Chaan Teng: fast casual fusion (Cantonese + Western) “tea restaurants” in Hong Kong, Macau, Guangdong and overseas Chinatowns
Tofu: bean curd
Chow Mein: stir-fried noodles
Neijuan: involution, cut-throat competition between businesses; BTW, neijuan was the Economist's foreign word of the year. (Source: Economist, December 6, 2025, p.75)
Typhoon: a tropical cyclone
Ping Pong: table-tennis
Gung Ho: charged up, very enthusiastic
Koro: crazy belief that one's penis is shrinking
Fengqiao model: "a Mao-era system whereby villagers would spy on one another" (Source: Economist, November 15, 2025, p.53)