Word.ws English Dictionary

zhing-zhong

zhing-zhong adjective: of objects, cheap, Chinese and of inferior quality.

Adjective

zhing-zhong (comparative more zhing-zhong, superlative most zhing-zhong)

  1. (Zimbabwe, derogatory, slang) Of objects, cheap, Chinese and of inferior quality.
    • Zimbabweans complain, sometimes bitterly, that their new Chinese buses break down with alarming regularity and that the Chinese goods that flood stores and roadside stalls are so shoddy as to be worthless. Indeed, they have coined a term for the phenomenon: zhing-zhong.
    • "To call something zhing-zhong means that it is substandard," said Eldred Masunugure, the chairman of the political science department at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare. "The resentment of the Chinese is not only widespread; it's deeply rooted. It's affecting even other Chinese-looking...
    • Professor Masunugure and others say that Harare's few Japanese residents complain of being taunted and called zhing-zhong.2005 July 24, Michael Wines, “From Shoes to Aircraft to Investment, Zimbabwe Pursues a Made-in-China Future”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 Feb 2018, Africa
  2. (Zimbabwe, derogatory, slang) Of a person, low-quality, unfit for their occupation or station in life.

Noun

zhing-zhong (uncountable)

  1. (Zimbabwe, derogatory, slang) Cheap products of Chinese origin.

Forms of zhing-zhong

comparativemore zhing-zhong
superlativemost zhing-zhong

Origin of zhing-zhong

Dates back to the onset of Chinese trade with Zimbabweans at the turn of the 21st century. Stems from the Chinese term zhèngzōng (正宗).

Questions about zhing-zhong

What does zhing-zhong mean?
Zhing-zhong means of objects, cheap, Chinese and of inferior quality.
What part of speech is zhing-zhong?
Zhing-zhong can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near zhing-zhong in the dictionary

  1. Zhijiang
  2. Zhijin
  3. Zhili
  4. zhimmi
  5. zhimmis
  6. zhing-zhong
  7. zhiqing
  8. zhiqings
  9. Zhitkur
  10. Zhitlowsky
  11. Zhitomir

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: zhing-zhong (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “zhing-zhong.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/zhing-zhong. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.