Working on translation of any living languages that continuously evolve like English and Chinese often offers interesting, sometimes challenging, phrases.  One of these is “当红炸子鸡(Dānghóng zhà zǐjī)“.

If you googled this phrase, you will receive many results on a popular dish otherwise known as “fried chicken”.  Only a few results explain how this phrase is newly adopted in the entertainment industry to refer to celebrities probably as popular as “fried chickens”, of these, I like the article by 汪惠迪 (Wang Hui-Di) which not only explained the new meanings but offered good examples and interesting insights (“当红炸子鸡“).  The author has interpreted this phrase to generally refer to “popular young celebrities”.

A language as widely spoken and used as Chinese is however never static and recently I was tasked to interpret and translate the following phrase for a manufacturing:

“智能制造是当今业界的“当红炸子鸡”,…”

Well, smart manufacturing is definitely popular but it is neither young nor a celebrity although it may have “followers”.  So how should one translate this phrase to retain not only its meaning but also its “flavour”?