How to say "big brother" in the Orwell/surveillance sense?

[barrie-ontario]

Hi,

 

A friend asked me this question today and I didn't know the answer ... and I found this forum ... I'll stick around I think because I would like to improve my Mandarin

 

Thanks in advance,

 

M

[889]

老大哥 in this subtitled 1984 teleplay.

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CjJzrYW7v6A

 

But I wouldn't be surprised if an equivalent doesn't exist in everyday Chinese, the notion of an all-encompassing surveillance state being so alien to the culture.

[Wurstmann]

习近平

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

?

[Bibu]

特朗普

[mungouk]

I was surprised to read recently (here? or maybe in a Supchina newsletter or something) that Orwell's 1984 novel is actually well-recognised within China, and not — as some may have suggested — banned?

 

In which case presumably some translation of "Big Brother" might be out there in the wild, if only within university literature departments.

 

 

[Jim]

Quite a long list of translations at its Baidu page: https://baike.baidu.com/item/一九八四/2672?fromtitle=1984&fromid=204192

 

ETA which also uses 老大哥

[陳德聰]

I would say 老大哥 is a pretty salient reference. Just saw a headline the other day that read "中國老大哥連圖片都有辨識審查手段" in reference to WeChat.

 

老大哥在看著你！

[Jim]

I noticed doing that quick search yesterday it's also how they translate the title of the reality TV show franchise, so perhaps pretty well established.