Introduction

Language is the most important tool of human communication, and it changes with the development of human society. With the emergence of the Internet, mankind has entered the network age. The medium of human communication has also changed. The Internet has also become an important platform for communication. In 2021, China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) released the Statistical Report on The Development of Internet in China. It pointed out that by June 2021, the scale of Internet users in China had reached 1.011 billion, and the scale of mobile Internet users in China had reached 1.007 billion[1]. The impact of the Internet on communication has been remarkable. Network buzzwords are the product of the rapid development of the Internet era. It not only meets the diverse needs of communication, but also adapts to the needs of social development and transformation, and becomes a mirror reflecting the characteristics of The Times.

Cross-cultural communication enables people with different cultural concepts and symbolic systems to interact, and the Internet makes such communication more convenient. At the same time, the emergence of network buzzwords has put forward new tasks and directions for understanding and translation (Tao, 2017; Wang Sha, Xiao Jiugen, 2020; Jing Luo, 2021; Zhou Yan, 2021 and others).

Methods

In order to investigate Internet buzzwords more carefully, the following research methods are adopted in this paper:

1. Observing and collecting buzzwords on Internet, and then analyzing buzzwords from the perspective of cross-cultural communication.

2.  Analyzing the origin and performance characteristics of Internet buzzwords to explore suitable translation strategies.

The main content

• Reasons for the formation and communication of network buzzwords

The causes of network buzzwords are multifaceted, including social factors and network users' own factors. As a network language, network buzzwords are developed with the emergence and development of the Internet to meet the needs of the Internet era. At the same time, in the virtual network, citizens need to use the corresponding virtual symbol system to realize the intention of communication, and network buzzwords are an important tool for the realization of this process.

First of all, the development and popularity of the Internet is the most important factor for the emergence of network buzzwords. Gadamer has asserted that the twenty first century is the first era in which technology plays a decisive role and begins to expand technological knowledge from the control of natural power to the control of social life. (Gadamer, 1988: 63) The network is a virtual space outside the reality supported by digital technology. With the continuous development of science and technology, the Internet has become the main channel for people around the world to communicate. The Internet is changing people's lives all the time, and also shaping the form of human groups. Netizen is the group produced under this background.

China officially joined the Internet in 1994, and in the 21st century, people's lives have been changed. In online communities or social media, many Chinese netizens like to use English words, letters, or Chinese-English hybrids to communicate ideas, which is also the result of language contact on the Internet.

Secondly, the social, economic and political situation is also a prerequisite for the emergence of network buzzwords. One of the fundamental characteristics of language is its sociality. China's reform and opening up provided historical conditions for the emergence of network language. The reform and opening-up policy, which began in the late 1970s, has enabled China to reach out to the world and the Chinese people to understand the world. While promoting economic development, reform and opening up have strengthened exchanges and contacts with other countries. All kinds of new things and ideas have emerged, creating a good environment for cultural vitality.

In the process, a large number of new words were coined. And with the Internet access of millions of households, network buzzwords also began to be known by more netizens and widely spread. For example, "3Q" is widely used among Internet buzzwords, referring to Thank you. "88" is the harmonics of the English word "ByeBye". "666" means a good game or awesome. And every year, new buzzwords emerge and become the catchphrase of netizens. We'll elaborate on the internet buzzwords for 2021 below.

Thirdly, the rise and development of network buzzwords are also the psychological reflection of network users in virtual space. At present, Internet users are mainly young people with a certain level of education, who are innovative and eager to be different. Driven by such social psychology, they are encouraged to pursue the visual effect of "defamiliarization" in expression. More importantly, they have a strong ability to control the direction of social trends and look forward to the emergence of new things, creating fashionable and trendy symbols to express their emotions. In addition to the psychology of seeking new things, the use of Internet buzzwords also reflects the users' psychology of identification and catharsis. Through the use of Internet buzzwords, they mark their identity and seek spiritual affiliation. In turn, they vent their emotions and relieve pressure within the group. (Song Ziran, Wang Yong, Li Jinlai, 2021: 57, 61, 68, 69).

The development of language is a dynamic development process. Network buzzwords are a new language variant produced under the background of network, and they are an important means of communication for netizens, which reflects the dynamic development of society. Any change in social life, even the smallest change, will be more or less reflected in language, mainly in vocabulary, for language is the most important means of communication by which social life is carried out. (Chen Yuan, 2000: 230)

• The concept and origin of network buzzwords

From the perspective of sociolinguistics, network buzzwords are not only a linguistic phenomenon, belonging to the category of network language, but also a social phenomenon. As a symbol of social change, language change is rooted in social change. Social change is the source and motive force of language change, and language change reflects and reacts on social change. W. Right, a famous American linguist, believes that language, as a social phenomenon, will unambiguously change with the changes of social life and change with the pace of social life (Su Xinchun, 2006: 17).

According to the viewpoint of Chinese scholar Wang Shiyong, network buzzwords are the most active language symbols with fermentation function and special meaning that are mainly used spontaneously by netizens in the network field within a certain period of time and often have an impact on social reality (Wang Shiyong, 2014: 189).

Through the above definition we can see that network catchword is first exist within a certain period or stage, with the aid of network media communication, its creator is Internet users, it is widely used and widely spread, it in words, numbers, letters and symbols as the main carrier, was born in a participatory and openness of Internet chat rooms, online communities, blogs, is the network language in the most active and netizens agreed expression.

In order to present the characteristics of network buzzwords more clearly, we analyze the top 10 Chinese Network buzzwords in 2021 with the corpus from The Top 10 Network Words in 2021 released by National Language Resources Monitoring and Research Center in December 2021.觉醒年代, YYDS, 双减,破防, 元宇宙, 绝绝子, 躺平, 伤害性不高，侮辱性极强, 我看不懂，但我大受震撼and 强国有我. Please look at the table below:

Table 1

Top 10 Chinese Internet Buzzwords of 2021

Таблица 1

10 самых модных китайских слов в Интернете в 2021 году

From the analysis of sources, there are mainly the following categories:

1. Current affairs policies

双减  is a new network buzzword brought by current affairs policies. "Double reduction" refers to the policy of the Ministry of Education in 2021 to further reduce the homework burden and off-campus training burden of students in compulsory education. 强国有我  originated from the solemn oath made by young students in the celebration of the centenary of the founding of the Party in Tian’anmen Square.

2. Cultural products

The term 觉醒年代  comes from the TV series "The Age of Awakening", which traces the birth and founding of the Communist Party of China. It has been well received by audiences and has become a hot topic of discussion. 元宇宙 , a science fiction concept from the novel Avalanche, is still an evolving concept. The buzzword 我看不懂，但我大受震撼 comes from the comment of a film and television work by famous director Ang Lee in the 2013 documentary "Disturbing Bergman".

3. Spontaneous creation of networks

YYDS basically originated from network broadcast, and has been continuously used by netizens. The application scenarios are expanding. It can not only be used to praise people, but also countries, institutions and organizations, and then extended to events, affairs, things, etc., all can become gods[3]. During the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games, Chinese athletes fought hard, with outstanding performances in shooting, diving, weightlifting, table tennis and other events, winning the whole network's "YYDS" cheers. The buzzword 破防, derived from the FTG term "Guard Break", refers to breaking an enemy's defensive state or reserve of defensive slots[4]. 伤害性不高，侮辱性极强comes from an online video. The word 绝绝子  became popular in an online show, where some fans used 绝绝子  to cheer on contestants, which indicates that it is great. The buzzword 躺平  first originated from a post by a posting user. 

Language is the most important communicative tool in human society. It comes from society and changes with the development of society. Vocabulary is the most productive part of language change. The emergence of neologisms is the embodiment of adapting to the development of social culture in language. Network buzzwords are the inevitable result of social development and reflect the multicultural and diverse social psychology of the present society.

Ⅲ. The expression characteristics of network buzzwords

In the network age, the network culture is changing rapidly. Network buzzwords exist in the network society, and are inevitably changing with the development of network communication technology. At the same time, influenced by the semantic transmission of language symbols, they have unique performance characteristics.

1. The timeliness

Network buzzwords are often generated based on social events or hot issues, which aptly reflect the changes of social life and times, and are a mirror of the development of times. Netizens show great enthusiasm and concern for social events, creating and spreading some words that reflect the characteristics of The Times. As the product of a specific period, network buzzwords reflect the state of public psychology and social development at that time. For example, the Internet buzzwords 觉醒年代, 双减  and 强国有我 mentioned above all epitomize the important events of 2021.

2. Entertaining

Neil Postman has made a systematic analysis in the book Entertainment to Death. He believes that a new media is the extension and expansion of the old media, and mass media has entered an entertainment era. The discourses of the entertainment age are characterized by the abandonment of logic, rationality and order (Postman, 2015). As a new medium, the network naturally embodies this entertainment more obviously. For example, "YYDS" is the Chinese phrase "eternal god" four words pinyin initials combination, this letter collage away from Chinese grammar norms, there is a convenient social communication language, as if the game code, has a strong entertainment; 绝绝子  is popular in network programs, which means "excellent" or "terrible", and is used to praise or ridicule. In terms of composition, it is different from typical Chinese word-formation rules and has an obvious tendency of gamification.

3. Simplicity

破防, 双减, 躺平  and "YYDS" are all popular words containing short sentences or several words in Chinese. In particular, the "double reduction", originally intended to further reduce the burden of homework and off-campus training for students in compulsory education, is simpler and easier to remember after being compressed. The simplicity of such network buzzwords is closely related to their special way of communication. In an era of rapid information development, people prefer to use simple and easy-to-understand language to express their inner thoughts, and simple buzzwords can be more easily used and disseminated by the public.

It can be seen that network buzzwords are free and full of banter. While liberating language, they are also far away from grammar rules. This is what Bakhtin called the carnival. (Xia Zhongxian, 1994: 81) The network buzzwords of carnival are close to social life, refract social phenomena and reflect social dynamics, which can meet the psychological needs of most people and help to vent emotions. And the simple, easy-to-understand form of the language makes the language itself more economical and practical.

IV. Russian translation strategies of Chinese Network buzzwords in cross-cultural communication

Cross-cultural communication is a discipline established by Edward Hall, an American cultural anthropologist, in the 1950s, which is also called intercultural communication. Cross-cultural communication aims to study the methods and approaches for people from different cultural backgrounds to cross cultural barriers and communicate effectively.

In today's world, the process of globalization is constantly advancing. Through the Internet as a carrier, cross-cultural communication realizes the interconnection and mutual learning between different national cultures. The media expands the flow of culture and the place where culture exists. In particular, the network media differs from the previous media such as printing, telegraph, telephone, and television. It possesses a more direct communication method than traditional media, and moreover, realizes the immediacy of interpersonal communication, with the process more convenient and faster, which provides a wider stage for multicultural exchanges.

In cross-cultural communication, languages of different cultures influence the cross-cultural expression and understanding of languages, while translation plays the role of cultural communication and dissemination. Translation, as an intermediary of cross-cultural communication, has the dual nature of culture and communication. Therefore, the process of translation, namely the dialogue between cultures, is the transmission of culture and the cross-cultural communication occurring in the process of interlingual communication.

Shen Suru believes that translation is a cross-language and cross-cultural communication, which is to fully and effectively convey the content expressed by a sender with a certain cultural background in a certain language (text) to the recipient with another cultural background (Shen Suru, 1998: 156).

In order to avoid the problems in the process of cross-cultural communication, especially translation errors caused by the differences between Chinese and Western cultural and language structures, translators need to adopt certain translation strategies and skills to correctly deal with the cultural elements in translation, so as to make cross-cultural communication more effective.

1. Literal translation

Literal translation is to tell the meaning of the original text intuitively and accurately, without any distortion or arbitrary addition or deletion, and retain the meaning and style of Chinese. For example, in Table 1, 觉醒年代(the age of awakening), 双减(double reduction), 我看不懂，但我深受震撼 (I didn't get it, I was just in awe) and 强国有我 (The powerful country has me) all belong to literal translation. Such network buzzwords often have equivalent meanings in Russian and Chinese with simple literal meanings, which are suitable for direct translation.

2. Free translation

Free translation is the expression of the meaning of the text naturally and fluently, without strict adherence to the original word form or original grammatical structure. Its complete meaning can be embodied through the use of rhetoric. Some network buzzwords with strong cultural color are difficult to be directly translated into Russian. For example, in the table above, the translation of popular words such as 绝绝子 and 伤害性不高，侮辱性极 will be widely distant from the meaning of these Internet buzzwords if translated according to the literal meaning of Chinese characters. The literal meaning should be abandoned and the meaning should be expressed in a form suitable for the Russian audience. Simultaneously, it is necessary to determine the Russian words according to the meaning of Chinese and the context of speech in order to avoid the semantic loss and meaning deviation caused by literal translation. For example, the word 绝绝子 has two meanings, one for praise, said extremely good, and the other for irony, said extremely bad. At this time, it is necessary for the translator to determine the choice of Russian words according to the specific context of use.

3. Interpretation

When there is no corresponding equivalent for the words of the source language in the target language, resulting in a cultural gap, we can abandon the rhetorical devices and expression forms of the original text and adopt an explanatory method to translate the original text. Such as 躺平, 破防, "YYDS" and other Internet buzzwords, can draw on the method of interpretation, so that the Russian audience can understand these network environment of the variation of Chinese.

There are many kinds of Chinese network buzzwords with different forms, and other processing methods will be adopted, such as zero translation method and transliteration method. For some Chinese Internet buzzwords it is difficult to find equivalent words in Russian, and it is not easy to explain them clearly, so in such cases it is better to choose the zero translation method. Transliteration is also common. This strategy emphasizes language functions by using phonemes as a unit in translation, similar to the pronunciation of the source language. Such as "tofu", "kung fu", "feng shui", "tai chi" and other Chinese culture-loaded words, using transliteration method, has been widely known to the Russian public. This translation method is generally used only for proper nouns such as names of people and places or for words referring to specific things. Given the absence of such words in 2021 internet buzzwords, we will not analyse them here.

Conclusion

Language and culture are interdependent. The generation of network buzzwords is the reflection of reality under the help of network media, which enriches the Chinese vocabulary and enhances the effect of people's daily communication to a certain extent. Chinese network buzzwords originate from their deep cultural roots. In cross-cultural communication, it is necessary to combine their surface meaning and deep connotation for translation. Edward Hall believes that there is no simple reflection, imitation or one-to-one proportionality between language and the real world (Hall, 2013). Translation, as a cultural practice, expresses the source language through the target language and makes things appear again. Therefore, in order to make cross-cultural communication more effective, appropriate translation strategies should be flexibly selected according to the specific context and semantics in the translation of Chinese network catchwords. Translators should not stick to one translation method, and can combine several translation strategies as appropriate to achieve better translation results.