Chinese civilization stretches back at least to the 3rd millennium BC. It is the source of many of the world’s great inventions, including paper, the compass, gunpowder, and printing, not to mention china (porcelain) itself. But maybe the greatest contribution that the country and its language have made to the Western world is tea. The drink is first mentioned in English in 1655. The Chinese connection first found in US English in the early 20th century.

　　中华文明可以至少追溯到公元前300万年。它是世界上许多伟大发明的源头，例如造纸术，指南针，火药和印刷术。更不用说还有瓷器本身。但是对中西方语言文化交流作出贡献的是茶。茶最早在1655年引入英国，而英语和汉语的关联，最早也是在20世纪初的美式英语中被发现。

　　People drinking something stronger than tea might say chin-chin, or ‘cheers!’ This is a mangled pronunciation of qing qing, a Chinese greeting. Another ‘doubled’ word is chop-chop, or ‘quickly’. Chop here is a pidgin Chinese rendition of Chinese kuaì ‘quick, nimble’, and is also found in chopstick.

　　人们在喝比茶更浓的饮品时可能会说“chin chin”或者“干杯”!这是模仿中国“请请”的发音。另外一个双音节词则是”chop-chop”，意为“快快”。这里的chop基于“筷子”的“筷”的发音，是对中式发音“快”的模仿。

　　Our range of savoury relishes was extended when traders introduced us to ketchup at the end of the 17th century. The name may come from Chinese ‘tomato juice’.

　　在17世纪末番茄酱被引入之后，菜肴的风味有了延展。这个名字可能和汉语中的“番茄汁”相关。

　　Contact with imperial China in the early 19th century introduced Westerners to the Chinese custom of kowtowing—kneeling down and touching the forehead on the ground in worship or submission. The word means literally ‘to knock the head’.

　　19世纪初期，西方人开始了解了封建王朝叩头的礼节——双膝跪地，前额轻触地面以显示尊敬或降服之意。这个词字面意思就是“头和地面相碰”。

　　Ginseng is a plant whose root is credited with various health-giving and medicinalproperties. Its Chinese name, rénshén, literally means ‘man root’, a reference to the root’s forked shape, which supposedly resembles a person.

　　Ginseng是一种植物的根茎，被认为可以促进健康并有药用价值。它的中文名字“人参”的意思是“人的根”，因其形状酷似人形而得名。

　　Gung-ho, meaning ‘unthinkingly enthusiastic and eager, especially about fighting’, dates from the Second World War. It is from Chinese gōnghé ‘to work together’, and was adopted as a slogan by the US Marines fighting in the Pacific under General Evans Carlson (1896–1947). He organized ‘Gung-ho’ meetings to discuss problems and explain orders to promote cooperation.

　　Gung-ho，意味不加思考的热情和冲动，尤为好斗。它的起源可追溯至二战。原形为汉语中的“共和”，即一起工作，并在埃文斯卡尔森将军 (1896–1947)领导的太平洋海战中被引入作为口号。他组织召开“共和”会议来研讨问题，促进合作。

　　Increasing interest in our living spaces in the 1990s led to the popularity of feng shui, the ancient Chinese system of designing buildings and arranging objects in rooms to achieve a positive flow of energy and so bring happiness or good luck. It goes back a long way in English, and even had an entry in the Encyclopaedia Britannica of 1797.

　　对于生存环境的愈发好奇使得在20世纪90年代，“风水”一词被引入，它指的是中国古代建筑及安排房间内物品摆放以达到能量均衡，从而带来幸福安康的一种方式。该词早在1797年就被收入大不列颠百科全书。

　　Not all our Chinese words are ancient, though. China’s first manned space flight in 2003 gave us taikonaut, a Chinese astronaut—taikong means ‘outer space’.

　　然而也不是所有的中文都源自古代。2003年，中国对太空领域的次载人探索使得新词taikonaut诞生，意味中国宇航员(taikong即为太空)。