"Picture a child walking alone in the world" that is Hen kerlien

The Chinese expression that means...not just sad, not exactly pathetic...Always with a bowl haircut: Hen kerlien!

From the LiveJournal Zarinov:

All it means literally is 'very (hen) sad (kerlien),' but it also has connotations of 'pathetic' without any of the judgment or scorn. I don't think there is an English equivalent, so at this juncture I will ask you to picture a child walking alone in the world. Hen kerlien!

Here are some examples of hen kerlien in action:

1. One time as a kid, I asked my dad if he wanted to play catch, and he said he was feeling too lazy at the moment; I said this was okay. I had a bowl haircut.

We had this plastic elephant that lobbed baseballs at you with its trunk, so minutes later I was seen carrying the elephant and a TV tray into the backyard. I guess at this point I became visible in the window of the living room, where my dad sat reclining on the couch. Thus framed, I proceeded to arrange the elephant on the TV tray, turn it on, and run away to hit the first ball with my whiffle bat. I repeated this process every fourth ball, because that is how many balls I had. I was not too far into it when my dad appeared in the backyard with my baseball glove, citing that the spectacle was too kerlien to bear. Hen kerlien!

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