"Shift from liquor to chips" — Phrase of the Week
Chinese investors have a new darling
Our phrase of the week is: "shift from liquor to chips" (喜芯厌酒 xǐ xīn yàn jiǔ)
Context
Cambricon Technologies (寒武纪) has emerged as one of China's hottest tech companies.
In August, it went from a loss-making startup to China's most valuable stock, briefly surpassing Kweichow Moutai (贵州茅台). Its stock price doubled, surging from 709 yuan to nearly 1,600 yuan at its peak.
Since its 2020 IPO, Cambricon had been loss-making.
In 2024 it became China's top-performing stock with a 383% gain, driven by China's "domestic substitution" (国产替代) push responding to US chip bans.
Now that the company is finally profitable, concerns remain that this rapid rise is driven more by emotion than meaningful metrics, leading to entertaining wordplay among Chinese investors:
"Fueled by investor’s shift from liquor to chips, Cambricon is crowned the new king on the capital markets."
在资本市场喜芯厌酒情绪托举下，寒武纪摇身变新王。
zài zībĕn shìchǎng "xǐ xīn yàn jiǔ" qíngxù tuōjǔ xià, hánwǔjì yáoshēn biàn xīn wáng .
And with that, we have our Sinica Phrase of the Week.
What it means
"Shift from liquor to chips" plays on the Chinese idiom "love the new, hate the old" (喜新厌旧 xǐ xīn yàn jiù).
The earliest written record of it appears in the Qing Dynasty novel Tales of Heroic Sons and Daughters (儿女英雄传) by Wen Kang, published in the mid-19th century.
It’s found in Chapter 27:
"I'm not afraid of your fickle heart that loves the new and hates the old; I have my own means to move stars and change constellations."
不怕你有喜新厌旧**的心肠，我自有移星换斗的手段。
bú pà nǐ yǒu xǐ xīn yàn jiù de xīn cháng, wǒ zì yǒu yí xīng huàn dǒu de shǒu duàn.
In modern Chinese it’s a way to criticise disloyalty — such as unfaithful partners, fair-weather friends, or trend-chasers.
The new version has been created by substituting two characters while maintaining the original sound:
"new" (新 xīn) becomes "microchip" (芯 xīn)
"old" (旧 jiù) becomes "alcohol" (酒 jiǔ)
“Shift from liquor to chips” (喜芯厌酒) captures investor sentiment perfectly: favouring semiconductor stocks (Cambricon) while abandoning traditional alcohol companies (Moutai).
Many investors welcome this shift, feeling that having a liquor brand as China's most valuable company damages the stock market's reputation.
But the wordplay retains the original's critical edge, questioning whether Cambricon represents a genuine long-term investment or just another trend investors will eventually abandon.
And for now at least, Moutai has reclaimed its spot as China’s most valuable stock.
Andrew Methven is the author of RealTime Mandarin, a resource which helps you bridge the gap to real-world fluency in Mandarin, stay informed about China, and communicate with confidence—all through weekly immersion in real news. Subscribe for free here.
And… Read more about how this story is being discussed in the Chinese media in this week’s RealTime Mandarin.
Chinese AI chip maker briefly overtakes Moutai to become China’s most valuable listed company