arty

附庸风雅 (of landlords, merchants, etc.) who attempt to mingle with scholarly men and pose as a lover of culture as a means of fawning those who are of a higher social status or who are more educated

Dictionary.com ------------------------ dilettante –noun 1. a person who takes up an art, activity, or subject merely for amusement, esp. in a desultory or superficial way; dabbler. 2. a lover of an art or science, esp. of a fine art. World English Dictionary ------------------------ —n 1. a person whose interest in a subject is superficial rather than professional 2. a person who loves the arts Definition #2 from both sources, Eliot. When correcting people you should first get your facts straight. Keep up the good work! :D

my dictionary also translates it as "to pose as a lover of culture". from the chinese, it seems to convery something like "a lower class person trying to be like an upper class".. i know exactly what situation this describes but i dont think we have such a nice saying for it in english. a lower class man man with lower education level, trying to pretend like he's educated. is that right?

Pretentious poetry.