Among Chinese speakers, the number 88 is IM/SMS shorthand for "bye bye". In Mandarin the number eight is "ba". Eighty-eight = ba ba = bye bye. Cute.

Unfortunately, 88 is also used as shorthand by neo-Nazis, because "h" is the eighth letter of the alphabet, and HH means...well, you can guess.

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About a decade ago, I lived in Korea. When I first arrived there, I was surprised to see swastikas painted on the rocks down at the cove near my apartment. What could this mean? Was there some kind of right-wing extremist group active in the neighborhood?

As it turned out, it wasn't fascist hatemongers, but Buddhist monks.

The number 88 has a special meaning in Korea, too. It is a brand of cigarettes ("Pal Pal") named after the Seoul Olympics. "Pal Pal" is the Sino-Korean version of "Ba Ba", so in theory you could also call them Bye Bye brand cigarettes. And "bye bye" is what would have happened to me if I went on smoking them.

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Back to China, where the acronym "PK" has entered wide circulation, thanks to the Super Girl singing contest. (A contestant who gets booted off the show is "PK-ed").

The term comes from computer gaming ("player killed"). I'm not part of that world, so when I first heard it, the only thing I could think of was "penalty kick". So here is a term originating in English which is more familiar to Chinese people than to me, a native speaker of English.