[bearwithclaws]

A nitpick about its translation of "Ma Nong" (码农): it doesn't mean "Number Cruncher". Although the "Ma" is the same character with "Hao Ma" (number), in describing the profession of programmer, it means "Code".

"Nong" means farmer ("Nong Fu"). It implies laborious work.

The closest translation to it should be "Code Farmer".

[marme]

also nong(农) is the character for migrant worker(农民) which are look down upon in china as poor peasants who come to big city looking for work in manual labor jobs. So it is like calling them a code peasant or something like that. It is really meant as a self depreciating kind of insult. The character nong(农) is always used to describe someone who does menial jobs like manual labor or farming

[scotty79]

So it seems like it's Chinese equivalent of code monkey.