"Ghost scale" — Phrase of the Week
"Ghost scale" — Phrase of the Week
Consumer rights influencer uncovers scam in Jiangsu market
Our phrase of the week is: “ghost scale" (鬼秤 guǐchèng).
Context
A video posted by a consumer rights influencer has gone viral on social media in China.
He goes by the handle “Knockout Brother” (狂飙兄弟), a reference to the hit 2023 TV Series, The Knockout (狂飙), which tells the story of a police officer's 20-year fight against organized crime and corruption.
Knockout Brother is a well-known vigilante consumer rights activist. He uncovers consumer scams and corruption scandals, exposing them on social media.
His viral video from last week shows him confronting a seller in a seafood and farmers' market in the coastal city of Lianyungang 连云港, in northern Jiangsu province.
After buying a bag of mantis shrimp (皮皮虾 pí pí xiā) from the unsuspecting market seller, he weighed it using his own scale.
The vendor had given him half a jin (半斤), approximately 250 grams, less than what he'd paid for.
Knockout Brother questioned the vendor.
She became aggressive, started shouting, grabbed the bag of shrimp from him, and threw it on the floor.
Knockout Brother asked a security manager for help.
He wasn’t helpful at all:
Delete the video, or I won't help you.
你把视频给我删了，不然我不给你处理。
Nǐ bǎ shìpín gěi wǒ shān le, bùrán wǒ bù gěi nǐ chǔlǐ.
The influencer refused. His phone was snatched from him by the security guard.
Then he was chased out of the market while being yelled at: “Delete the video!”
After the video went viral online, the Lianyungang authorities opened an investigation:
In response to the blogger “Knockout Brother” reporting that he encountered “ghost scale” while buying seafood in Lianyungang, Jiangsu, and had his phone snatched by market security manager, the joint investigation team from Lianyungang Haizhou District announced the results of their investigation on the evening of May 19: five individuals were detained, and both the vendor and the market management were fined.
针对博主“狂飙兄弟”反映在江苏连云港买海鲜遭遇“鬼秤”、还被市场管理人员抢夺手机一事，5月19日晚，连云港海州区联合调查组通报处理结果：涉事5人被行拘，商户和主办方被罚款。
Zhēnduì bózhǔ “kuángbiāo xiōngdì” fǎnyìng zài Jiāngsū Liányúngǎng mǎi hǎixiān zāoyù “guǐchèng”、hái bèi shìchǎng guǎnlǐ rényuán qiǎngduó shǒujī yíshì, wǔ yuè shíjiǔ rì wǎn, Liányúngǎng Hǎizhōu qū liánhé diàochá zǔ tōngbào chǔlǐ jiéguǒ: shèshì wǔ rén bèi xíng jū, shānghù hé zhǔbàn fāng bèi fákuǎn.
And with that we have our Sinica Phrase of the Week.
What it means
"Ghost scale" is a Chinese slang term common in spoken language.
It’s an electronic scale which has been tampered with. The displayed weight shown on a "ghost scale" is higher than the actual weight, meaning in a market, for example, a vendor can over-charge their customers according to the heavier weight.
False weights can be shown on a scale through a password protected setting on the device, making a "ghost scale" hard to identify.
There is no clear source of the term "ghost scale". Although it’s probably developed from the phrase, "doing a ghost" (搞鬼 gǎoguǐ), which means to “deceive” or ‘play tricks” on someone.
Ghost scale scams are common in China. For example, in November last year, the social media influencer, superB太, exposed similar ghost scale scam in a food market in Dalian.
"Ghost scale" can be translated as "fraudulent" or "fake" scale, but in this instance we prefer the direct translation of “ghost scale”.
There are many other phrases in Chinese for particular types of scams, some of which have been previous Phrases of the Week.
Like "piggy backing scams" (碰瓷 pèngcí), which we discussed in January 2023, when a new ride hailing app posed as government-backed service to win new customers.
Read more about how this story is being discussed in the Chinese media in this week’s RealTime Mandarin.
Andrew Methven is the author of RealTime Mandarin, a resource to help you learn contemporary Chinese in context, and stay on top of the latest language trends in China.
Phrase of the Week Note: “Scale” (the translation of 秤 chèng) is preferred in American English. Whereas in British English, we prefer “scales” with an “s”, which is how we translate it in RTM post yesterday. After all, I am British, but Sinica is American!