黑金

hēijīn
noun #35,668

Meanings

  1. 1 black gold (figurative for petroleum)
  2. 2 illicit money; dirty money; bribery / political slush funds (especially in Taiwanese political vocabulary)
  3. 3 (music) black metal (genre, also written 黑金属)

Examples

Shíyóu bèi chēngwéi hēijīn.
Oil is called 'black gold'.
Táiwān de hēijīn zhèngzhì céngjīng hěn yánzhòng.
Taiwan's 'black gold' politics was once a serious problem.

Tips

culture
Three contexts to keep apart: (1) commodity slang — petroleum / oil. (2) Taiwanese political-corruption vocabulary — the term 黑金政治 became a major issue from the 1990s, referring to organized-crime money mixing into elections. (3) Heavy-music subculture — short for 黑金 (black metal). Context usually makes the meaning obvious.

Stroke Order

hēi
jīn