白骨精

Báigǔjīng
proper noun #59,699

Meanings

  1. 1 the White Bone Demon of Journey to the West
  2. 2 a sly, scheming woman
  3. 3 a high-flying career woman

Examples

HSK 2
Báigǔjīng xiǎng chī Tángsēng de ròu.
The White Bone Demon wants to eat the Tang monk's flesh.
HSK 6
Tā biǎomiànshang hěn wēnróu, qíshí shì ge báigǔjīng.
She looks gentle on the surface, but she is actually a schemer.
HSK 7-9
Tā zài yì jiā wàiqǐ dāng jīnglǐ, shì gōngsī lǐ yǒumíng de báigǔjīng.
She is a manager at a foreign company and one of the best-known high-flyers in the office.

Tips

culture
In chapter 27 of 《西游记》 she disguises herself as a young woman, an old woman and an old man; Sun Wukong sees through each disguise and strikes, but the Tang monk takes him for a murderer and sends him away. The episode is known as 三打白骨精 "three times beating the White Bone Demon".
usage
In office slang since the 2000s, 白骨精 also stands for 白领, 骨干 and 精英 "white-collar, backbone, elite": a successful career woman, said half admiringly. Context tells it apart from the older insult.

Stroke Order

白 bái
骨 gǔ
精 jīng