打工皇帝

[blandmc]

Hi all!

My Chinese teacher gave me a new word today: 打工皇帝 (da3gong1 huang2di4).

- I know 打工 means: to work - especially at manual or part time labor.

- I know 皇帝 means: emperor

But I am unclear what 打工皇帝 means together. My teacher said something about it being a way to refer to the top worker in a company.

The guy who makes the most salary but he is not the boss. But then he gave the example of a CEO being a 打工皇帝. So... that doesn't make sense to me since the CEO is generally the boss in a company.

That said... I guess I don't know what this word means and searching online didn't really help.

Can anyone explain what this means and how to use it?

Thanks!

[889]

Did you find this rather extensive discussion of the term in Chinese?

http://baike.baidu.com/view/506522.htm

[skylee]

Perhaps more clearly put is that a peson who earns a lot of money but is an employee (i.e. who can be fired, like a CEO) of a company or somebody (like very rich people) is a 打工皇帝. 打工 means to earn a living by working as an employee.

You think that the CEO is the boss of a company? OK. Maybe for you "CEO" is not the best example.

[Zomac]

打工 doesn't imply to work as a part time worker. All employees earn their money by 打工.

打工皇帝 refers to someone who earns extremely high income. When the term was coined in Hong Kong back in 1980-1990s, it referred to someone who paid more than dozens of million HK$ income tax a year. So their annual income should be over Hk$100 million (~ US$12 million ). I think your teacher's explanation is not accurate. These guys aren't just a top worker in a company (many companies can't even afford to have one). They are top workers in the whole country or economy.

[blandmc]

Hi all!

As always, thanks for all the replies and explanation.

[Zomac]

To add some remarks, the meaning of 打工 seems to be more complicated than just thought after I asked various people about it.

In Hong Kong and Guangdong, it means anyone earning salary as an employee.

In Taiwan, it usually refers to students to do part time jobs. When asked if it can refer to any employees, one says yes, another one feels uncertain.

In the Mainland China, if a worker goes from rural china to big cities to get a job, it is 打工. This meaning is made popular by the TV drama 外来妹 in early 1991. But another one suggest employees in private-owned enterprise (not gov't owned ones) can also be referred as 打工.

Sounds that there's no definite meaning for this word, especially in Taiwan and mainland china.

[KonW]

chinese add 皇帝/帝 to the end of words ,meaning that they are the most in this kind of thing

exp: 淡定帝 that person is just so calm, so cool, etc

英语帝 , in chinese forums,etc, if you used english very well some guy may refer you as 英语帝, cause you're so good at it that you gained respects from him

this is rather common, others like the word 神

exp: a good work(film,etc) may got referred to as 神作