hold住hold zhù

住 after a verb means the action holds: 记住 is “remember firmly”, and 站住 is “stand still”. hold住 does the same with an English verb. You can hold住 a meeting, a crowd, your nerves or your laughter.

The negative is hold不住, “can’t handle it”, for anything that is too much: too funny, too scary, too busy.

hold住 is still common in casual chat, and hold不住 even more so. It is spoken Chinese for friends, not for a work email.

The phrase comes from Miss Lin, a comic character played by the actress Evonne Xie on 大学生了没, a TV variety show. In an episode in August 2011, Miss Lin, a fashion fan who mixes English into every sentence, tells a story of things going wrong and insists that 整个场面我hold住: “I can hold the whole scene.”

The clip spread fast online. At the end of 2011, China News Service listed hold住 among the year’s top catchphrases and said people used it to show they were calm inside.