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Archive 1

Very good

Bravo on a very well done article! Badagnani 11:26, 31 March 2006 (UTC)



AMAZING. although i lived in beijing for the past 15 years, some of these i didn't even know.

Niubi

The second character for niubi is given differently from another spelling: 牛逼. What is the difference? Also, the literal meaning for niubi should be given in the article. 131.123.231.143 00:23, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

Title should be changed

Title should be changed to Mandarin Slang & Insults

Xihe (talk) 00:20, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Attention: Slang Glossary policy discussion underway

Slang glossaries violate the following policy:

Wikipedia is not a dictionary

Wikipedia is not a dictionary or a usage or jargon guide. Wikipedia articles are not:

  1. Dictionary definitions. Because Wikipedia is not a dictionary, please do not create an entry merely to define a term. An article should usually begin with a good definition; if you come across an article that is nothing more than a definition, see if there is information you can add that would be appropriate for an encyclopedia. An exception to this rule is for articles about the cultural meanings of individual numbers.
  2. Lists of such definitions. There are, however, disambiguation pages consisting of pointers to other pages; these are used to clarify differing meanings of a word. Wikipedia also includes glossary pages for various specialized fields.
  3. A usage guide or slang and idiom guide. Wikipedia is not in the business of saying how words, idioms, etc. should be used. We aren't teaching people how to talk like a Cockney chimney-sweep. However, it may be important in the context of an encyclopedia article to describe just how a word is used to distinguish among similar, easily confused ideas, as in nation or freedom. In some special cases an article about an essential piece of slang may be appropriate.

Due to the many AfDs which are initiated to enforce this policy and due to the resistance to such deletion by defenders of the glossaries, I have started a discussion at Wikipedia talk:What Wikipedia is not#Slang glossaries to rewrite the policy in order to solve this problem and to readdress this question: should slang glossaries by allowed on Wikipedia? --List Expert 23:44, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

This article is useful to Wikipedia users around the world and provides information that is not available elsewhere. Furthermore, the article Mandarin slang is not a simple glossary but instead includes text and explanations of various usages. Badagnani 00:00, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Trad characters?

How about adding the Traditional Chinese characters?

204.95.114.114 23:58, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

I'll start adding the traditional characters in increments as time permits. I'm gonna need others to help me verify them though. In the meantime, this is a good reason to study both character sets :-) Vindictive Warrior 05:05, 7 October 2006 (UTC)
Just checking, are there some expressions that are only used in the PRC and not used in Taiwan, Singapore, etc. where traditional characters are used? If so, does it make sense to add trad. characters for all expressions? While you're at it, why not add wiktionary links for all as well? Badagnani 05:21, 7 October 2006 (UTC)
It looks like it's coming along very well. Badagnani 06:15, 7 October 2006 (UTC)
Wow, I didn't expect a reply so quickly; this page must be quite popular :-p. Anyway, yes, there are definitely variations in the Mandarin used in different areas (I tend to hear my mainland friends say 操 quite often, and my Taiwanese friends say 靠 a lot, for example). In that case, I think it's best to add a note to the end of each entry in which regional differences apply. In the meantime, I don't mind adding traditional characters indiscriminately, I'm bored.
Anyway, for those unable to wait for my next phase and are capable of entering traditional Chinese, notice I revised the format of the entries for easier reading and organization. Those learning Chinese will probably want to read the Pinyin prior to looking at the characters. Pinyin is usually italicized in order for the eyes to quickly distinguish romanization from words (in MediaWiki, this can be done with double apostraphes in place of the <i></i> HTML tags). PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT ITALICIZE CHINESE CHARACTERS, it's a pain in the derrière to read it. I let the simplified characters precede the traditional ones simply because they were here first. If an Instant Messaging abbreviation exists, that should go last within the parentheses. If, in your opinion, this new format is absolutely repulsive, please speak out so we can consider something else. Otherwise, the rest of the entries will be formatted as such.
Vindictive Warrior 06:46, 7 October 2006 (UTC)
I agree with everything, except one thing. I've been working with hanzi and pinyin here for some time now, and I've come to feel that pinyin does not read well when italicized. While words in other languages look okay with italics (French, Spanish, Hindi, or whatever) pinyin does not. Perhaps bold could be used instead, or no italics. Just my thoughts. Badagnani 06:55, 7 October 2006 (UTC)
I see. Well, it's open to experimentation and discussion. Bold does work as an attention-grabber, but just that I see a lot of romanization (such as in Japanese) in Wikipedia as italics. *yawn*, 在加州現在就是半夜, 我下午大概可以回來。再見！ (My Chinese may sound either too formal or too broken, since I'm still learning it) Vindictive Warrior 07:13, 7 October 2006 (UTC)
I'm a "1" level Chinese speaker/reader as well -- what did people do before Wiktionary??  : ) Japanese romanization looks okay with italics, maybe because they only have macrons to deal with. With hanzi there are more tone marks and I guess that's the problem with legibility; they're hard to read in italics. Badagnani 07:26, 7 October 2006 (UTC)
Ugh, my teachers are relentless with homework, as usual, so I haven't been online recently. I guess I shouldn't make promises to return at a given time. Anyway, it does seem that bold-face pinyin looks much better, and doesn't screw up the tone markings as much as italics. Only a matter of time until the article is covered completely. Adding Wiktionary links is an entirely different task though :-p. Vindictive Warrior 06:01, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
I think by now I've put up all of the applicable trad. characters, but since I relied heavily on Wiktionary, it really doesn't replace the knowledge of an expert (since some simp. chars have more than one corresponding trad. char, and so on). (狗娘式開始。。。)Although this isn't the best place to say this, I must say that I hate Wikipedia's edit-conflict handling, discarding the user's work and replacing it with the most recent copy. How's this: show a side-by-side comparison chart, show the user's work on the bottom, THEN invite the user to merge changes from there... (狗娘式完了). I suppose full Wiktionary linking comes next? Vindictive Warrior 07:57, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
By the way, many thanks to Badagnani for formatting the article and cleaning up! Vindictive Warrior 07:59, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
It's great fun! Hope this will be of use to people in the future. Badagnani 08:09, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Taiwan use

I think to use "tongzhi" for homosexual is taiwan use, isn't it? Also, 150 means stupid person, as well. --—Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.183.130.133 (talk • contribs) 08:07, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

流氓

If 流氓 is slang, it needs to be added. Badagnani 16:33, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

您

Why does this article use the honourific 您 (pronounced nín, not nǐ) instead of 你? -Y-Burn 19:08, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Fixed. Badagnani 16:34, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

猫咪

I think we need this one too. Badagnani 17:30, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

This would obviously be a derivative of 咪咪, but I have never seen it used. --Voidvector 18:07, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

Drugs

I know drugs aren't prevalent in the P.R.C., however this list seems incomplete without at least touching on the subject.--Grok1122 09:48, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

There is a market for it. I am guessing you were referring to the "street names" in Chinese. The only street name that I am aware of is 快乐丸 (happy pill), which is Ecstasy. --Voidvector 21:46, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

"Tu" and "hai"

The slang for "tu" (土; unfashionable) and "hai" (海; fashionable) should be added as well. Badagnani 09:53, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

土 is not a slang, it has a dictionary definition for something like this. There are number of words derived from this which are used in literary setting, e.g. 土气 (barbarous). I don't encounter 海 as much, but I thought it means "extreme". If it does mean "extreme" then it is also a dictionary definition that has been around for centuries. --Voidvector 21:00, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

No, I was told 海 can mean (in slang) "fashionable"--the opposite of "tu" (土; unfashionable). Wiktionary doesn't possess any of these definitions we're discussing. Badagnani 21:54, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Ok, I have never seen them used as antonyms, so I can't help on that. I wouldn't be surprised informal usages are not listed under Wiktionary, they are often not listed under Chinese-English dictionary either. When I said dictionary definition, I meant Xinhua Zidian. Regarding mántóu, it is fine. In my experience, tofu is a lot more popular. --Voidvector 21:19, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Ta Ma De

I'm fairly certain that "TaMaDe" (his mother's) is actually quite vulgar, as I certainly wouldn't say it to anyone in Taiwan. It is often translated as "fuck" and is used in the same way ... "This Fucking Car" ... "Zhe Lian TaMaDe Che Zi"

I think perhaps it's best to not put any distinction of it being more or less vulgar after it.

You must be hanging out with awfully fussy people; it is heard on television, and even Lu Xun wrote about it decades ago. Foxhead 17:44, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Criticism

Sure, stating the obvious is good, but beginning the article by saying that Mandarin slang contains a lot of taboo words is just overdoing it. What type of slang doesn't include taboo words? Since no human culture in the world is really all that comfortable with public proclamations of sex, slang by definition will take over the role of describing much of it. Comparisons are also good, but they should be a lot more specific than "like in English". Just consider the huge differences that exist within such a widespread language to realize why this is rather pointless.

And please don't confuse "insults" with "foul language" and then define "slang" as consisting merely of these two concepts. One can easily insult someone without having to resort even to mild slang and slang itself always involves a lot more than just naughty words. It generally refers to non-standard language of any kind, and can range from different names for food to synonyms for everyday verbs.

Peter Isotalo 07:26, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Then change the title. The article deals primarily with verbal aggression and obscene/blasphemous language (Maledicta). Badagnani 07:28, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

The problem of narrow coverage is not solved by changing an article's title, but by expanding the article to cover other aspects of the topic.

Peter Isotalo 10:28, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

It could grow a bit long. Sexual slang is one subject, verbal aggression is another (though they overlap), but "teenagery" slang words that don't fit into either of those headings, and Internet/text message-style Martian language is yet another thing. Badagnani 18:12, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Slang is a very broad topic, so I don't quite see the problem of having it covered by a rather long article. But it should be noted that the current text is really just a long list of slang terms rather than any kind of summary of traits of either slang, profanities or verbal aggression. More prose and fewer bullet lists would be a clear improvement.

Peter Isotalo 10:34, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Have to agree with Peter here. The point of wikipedia is not, as far as I know, to give long lists of words in foreign languages, offensive or otherwise. As far as I can see, the page should be changed to incorporate etymology/history of usage/modern usage in greater detail, otherwise the educational/encyclopaedic aims of wikipedia are pretty much ignored. At the moment the page barely even reads as a "How to insult people in Chinese" manual. I'm not the one to make changes as my knowledge of Mandarin slang/insults/whatever is minimal, but maybe someone who really wants to see this page kept should make an effort...Headbeater (talk) 00:24, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
Etymology is given for most words. Badagnani (talk) 00:25, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

Mother section

Regarding my changes to mother section:

  • "他媽的" (ta ma de) is an interjection that you would use to express discontent at someone (hence the word 他). The interjection is often followed up by sentences. In terms of restraint, it does not show much refrain, as the speaker is assume to be fairly mad/upset. However, in terms of vulgarity, it is fairly mild as it does not contain any curse words. It can be used inline as an adjective, although the meaning/vulgarity of the sentence would be the same as if the person used it as an interjection.
    • "damn" is used to to express dismay at things that had happened. In my opinion, it is a fairly mild curse. "damn" shows more restraint, so i chose "goddamn it" as translation. Also in my impression, "damn" alone also shows some degree of acceptance of the thing that happened.
    • "shit" when used as an interjection is more like a realization of something bad had happened, so the emotion is more like disbelief or panic. So the meaning is quite different.
  • "他媽的鳥" (ta ma de niao) almost the same as above, except more vulgar. And cannot be used as an adjective.
  • "去你奶奶的" (qu ni nai nai de), "去你媽的" (qu ni ma de), "去你的" (qu ni de) are phrases responding to a disagreeable verbal phrase. It is not very vulgar. In fact so not vulgar, that you can use it in a friendly fashion to a good friend.
    • former translation "fuck off" is usually used in response of being bothered, doesn't have to be directed at a phrase. "Fuck off" also attempts to end the topic or telling the person to leave. Neither of the Chinese phrase has that. In my experience, "fuck off" cannot be used in a friendly manner. So chose "your mom" and "shut the fuck up" as better suited translations.
  • the last two, I just changed mother to mom because 媽=mom, while 母亲=mother.
  • I removed "kill your mother" because i don't think anyone would interpret 干 as kill.--Voidvector (talk) 03:36, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Doufu

Why do we have "mai doufu" but not its counterpart "chi doufu"? Badagnani (talk) 21:46, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

per Bagandani

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.51.11.219 (talk) 06:02, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

娘娘腔 (suggested merge)

娘娘腔 is not a very vulgar profanity, but it is an insult, so I suggest a merge. The article doesn't have much content beyond its definition and usage. --Voidvector (talk) 21:02, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

Additionally, all forms of profanity, severe or not, should be allowed to be added, as per WP:NOTCENSORED. -- 李博杰  | —Talk contribs 12:46, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Mala

From the Sichuan mala article: "The adjective málà is also used in Mandarin slang to mean 'sexy', much like the word 'hot' in English. The Mandarin title of the animated series Kim Possible is Málà Nǚhái (麻辣女孩; literally 'numbing-hot girl')."

Can this be verified, and, if accurate, added to the article? Badagnani (talk) 08:46, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I can verify that "mala" means "hot", but I cannot verify the cartoon claim. -- 李博杰  | —Talk contribs 06:35, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Need traditional

Need traditional for zhuāngbī. Badagnani (talk) 06:52, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Zar and gege

Zar and gege need hanzi and tone marks. Badagnani (talk) 06:54, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Make your own tone marks, just copy/paste the hanzi into http://www.pin1yin1.com and it should convert to tone marks. -- 李博杰  | —Talk contribs 11:20, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm not a native speaker and was asking for a native speaker to add them. Since I don't know the hanzi either, I can't know what the tone marks are. Badagnani (talk) 20:06, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

I have no idea about how "zar" is said or written. Is there an entry for 玩老二, wán lǎo èr, lit., play with little brother, i e., jack off? But I guess that is not profanity so it would not be included. P0M (talk) 08:50, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

It would seem appropriate so you can go ahead and add it if you like. Badagnani (talk) 17:18, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Several problems

I've fixed a couple of obvious mistakes, but the quality of Chinese language scholarship seems to be a bit low on this general subject.

Some expression are hard to understand, and native speakers may not even have a clear explanation. "Wàng bā dàn" is a case in point. Many people will tell you that it is the equivalent of 龜兒子 guī érzi, lit., son of a turtle, but they won't be able to tell you why. If you think about the appearance of the head of a turtle, and especially the appearance of a turtle's head emerging from where it has been hidden for safety within the turtle's shell, you will see that the second expression means something like "son of [some anonymous person's] penis." Where "eight forgetting egg" comes from is just a matter of speculation until somebody can find a locus classicus.

The expressions involving 去 are highly questionable. For one thing, the English translations do not correspond to the Chinese.

  • qù nǐ nǎinaide (去你奶奶的) = your mom (lit. "go to your grandma") But it is "... your grandma's" not "... your grandma."
  • qù nǐ māde (simplified Chinese: 去你妈的; traditional Chinese: 去你媽的) = your mom (lit. "go to your mom") Again it's "your mom's"
  • qù nǐde (去你的) = fuck off/shut the fuck up (milder)

Logically, on analogy with the first two, "qù nǐde" should mean "Go to yours!" But that doesn't make any sense at all, and as far as I know there are not any expression in Chinese like, "Go fuck yourself!" In actual use it is more like "Fuck off!" at least in the sense that that's what somebody might say in English in the same kind of social situation. But what it probably actually means is more like "Begone, knave!" or, "Get lost!" The reason it can mean something like that is that if you go back to the classics as printed in the 19th century you will sometimes see 去 printed with a little half-circle (which turns into a full circle in more modern dictionary style representation) at the upper left corner of the character. That marks it as being read qǔ rather than the ordinary reading qù. When it is read in third tone it means "to get rid of." "Get rid of your [presence, existence, dick, whatever]" is probably what is really being said, even if the speaker is just using the expression by rote. Explaining it this way makes sense out of: "Qù nǐ māde!" would then mean something like, "Rid the world of your mother's [cunt, or whatever]!" "Qù nǐ nǎinaide!" makes an even more "pull them out by the root" solution to the speaker's anger: "Rid the world of your Grandma's [cunt], i.e., Off with the source of your whole damned family!" Chinese speakers don't call you a motherfucker. They express the intention to fuck your mother themselves. In Lu Xun's essay, "On 'His Mother's'", he records having heard a cart driver berating his ox by saying, "Cào nǐ mèimei de!" It wasn't recorded whether the ox was a steer, a bull, or a cow, and that is because it was irrelevant. The dray man was threatening to fuck the younger sister of the poor beast (of whatever sex) that was doing an unsatisfactory job of pulling his cart. If somebody tells you he has fucked your mother, that demeans your mother, and it is an unbearable affront. I was told by a long-term ex-pat in Taiwan that if you ever got into a fight the sure way to get the cops on your side was to claim that the other guy had said something bad about your mother. The cart driver was claiming the intention to have intercourse with an animal, which would be bad enough to give anybody pause in our culture, but it didn't bother the driver, and it didn't bother Lu Xun.

It would make sense, in America, to say something like, "Go fuck your grannie," or "You fuck your own mom," or even, "You fuck cows!" but that puts the shame on the individual. In China the individual can better withstand the shame that the opponent tries to put on him. In the Dream of the Red Chamber, there is an episode involving a schoolroom brawl that starts with the assertion that two boys have been admiring each other's cocks. To make a long and funny story short, one of the young bond servants of the main character in the novel takes the part of his master and his master's friends and shouts something like, "Fuck assholes! Fuck assholes! Who the hell cares whether we all fuck assholes!" Meaning that it is their own business whom they fuck, and nobody else has anything to say about it. (I think that story is in chapter 9 if anybody cares to look up the original.) It would have been another matter if one of the kids had said something like, "Your mom fucks the delivery man!" Blood might have been shed, or something more hefty than an inkstone thrown. P0M (talk) 08:50, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Excellent points. Some of this could be added to the article; are there sources on this? The Maledicta journal has had articles on Cantonese profanity, but I'm not sure there are scholarly writings on Mandarin ones. Badagnani (talk) 17:17, 23 September 2008 (UTC)
I'll look around. Of course traditional China may have been even more snooty about discussing sex and slurs than any English speakers. (I wonder how much stuff got into the OED.)P0M (talk) 18:21, 23 September 2008 (UTC)
The Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Chinese Language, (something a little like the OED) discusses 王八 (wáng bā) in vol. 6 p. 281. That's the term that is usually written casually for the slur. 王八 switched over from 忘八 wàng bā because of a nasty piece of work with the family name 王 who picked up the nickname 賊王八 zéi Wáng bā, but for being a dastard, not for being a bastard. The dictionary doesn't say, but he may have been the eighth Wang among his siblings. Anyway, he became "crook Wang eight." There is a pun here because of the earlier expression 忘八 wáng bā used to describe (1) any person who forgets/disregards the eight virtues, (2) an un-virtuous woman, i.e., one who sleeps around. The first meaning applied to the dastardly Wang, but the family name got "stuck" to the second term.
Then a 忘/王八蛋 is the offspring "laid" by the unvirtuous woman. Why "laid"? Another meaning of 王八 is 鼈 biē, fresh-water turtle. Turtle heads look like the glans emerging from the foreskin and turtles lay eggs. So a "wang ba" is a woman who has lost her virtue, and a "wang ba dan" is the progeny of such a woman, a turtle product, but, figuratively, also a prick product. Maybe the ancient Chinese realized more clearly than people in other areas that the penis and the clitoris are, in embryo, the same tissue. They are the same thing, but modified to fulfill functions appropriate to the two sexes. It takes two kinds of turtles to produce one fertile egg, I guess, and turtles may be even more indiscriminate than dogs. P0M (talk) 19:04, 23 September 2008 (UTC)
This is fantastic. You should add it (maybe in more concise form) to the article. Badagnani (talk) 19:16, 23 September 2008 (UTC)
I slightly misremembered the Lu Xun quotation, but his article is worth mining, so I'm glad I found it:

http://www.millionbook.net/mj/l/luxun/f/021.htm In the first paragraph he says:

曾見一輛煤車的只輪陷入很深的轍跡里，車夫便憤然跳下，出死力打那拉車的騾子道：“你姊姊的！你姊姊的！”

"I once saw a coal cart get stuck in a deep rut. The driver angrily jumped down and exerting a deathly force struck the mule pulling the cart, shouting: '[Fuck] your elder sister's [cunt]! [Fuck] your elder sister's [cunt]!"

In the same place he points out that the speaker can direct the intention to fuck at anybody in his target's family, including members of the speaker's own sex. The whole idea boils down to, "I will/do/have already used a family member of yours sexually."
The "go/begone/off with your..." business may take a while longer. P0M (talk) 19:33, 23 September 2008 (UTC)
In trying to run down "bāzi" used as a phrase of admiration, I came across 媽巴羔子 mā bā gāozi, which can also be used approvingly. Most of the time it is used as an affront. One place, discussing a homonym, says that "it's not the bāzi of tā mā bā gāozi," so the "gāo" element is extra or supplementary somehow. A "bā" originally meant a serpent (the earliest form of the character is a drawing of a snake coiled to strike), so I'm guessing that "bāzi" means clitoris, but I haven't found the place where Lu Xun, or maybe it was somebody else, explains that the term can be used approvingly. I found "tā mā bā gāozi" used approvingly in a couple of places on the WWW. But nowhere can I find an explanation of the term. It's one of those things that everybody knows but nobody mentions I guess. The "gāo" element is written two ways. The one written here means "lamb," and the only association I can think of is the rather literary expression for testicles, "lamb balls." So, female versions of penis and testicles? The other meaning of "gāo" (written with the rice radical) is "cake." Something like "pussy cake"? Who knows. P0M (talk) 21:06, 23 September 2008 (UTC)
Chinese is full of these "almost-lost" etymologies. See Moo shu pork to find out why Chinese dishes containing eggs were renamed as "sweet osmanthus flower" dishes. Badagnani (talk) 21:14, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Crystal people

The article says that the expression "glass people" refers to homosexuality because "bo li" is "b l" and "b l" is "boy love." I don't think that is the right explanation. In Dream of the Red Chamber, there is the passage:

一席話說得眾人都笑起來了。李紈笑道：「真真你[鳳姐]是個水晶心肝玻璃人。」

That it near the beginning of a chapter in which a group of other women in the Jia household come to try to get Phoenix to act as the "enforcer" in a little group they have been trying to get going, and Phoenix tries to avoid involvement at which point one of the women describes her, saying, "Zhen-zhen, you are a crystalline heart and affectionate center and a glass person." She is describing Phoenix as someone who is pure, clear, fastidious, etc. This type of clean, pure, glistening, sparkling individual is appreciated and regarded as the social ideal if not the social norm. The description would fit the idealized Queen Elizabeth at the time of her marriage. Applied to a male, it doesn't fit the social stereotypes. Boys should be a little scruffy to be real boys, so some male who is one of Bai Xian-yong's "Crystal Boys" is likely to be regarded as a homosexual regardless of what his actual sexual preferences are. (In The Story of the Stone the translation is "a crystal heart in a glass body.")

Then there is the expression "老玻璃“ (lǎo bō lí). In the movie made from Bai's novel, that is what the photographer's landlady calls him. In general she likes him, but in this case she was being rather gruff, and I think the appropriate translation you be something like, "You old queer." P0M P0M (talk) 03:31, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

I've found a definition of "glass person" in the revised version of Guoyu Cidian that is offered online at: http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/index.html

I've supplied an obvious omission, "nan feng" (southern custom = male custom) for homosexuality. It's probably the only native term that is fairly neutral and/or not limited to effeminate types of gays. The "cut sleeve" and "shared peach" are both highly romanticized terms. "Glass" or "crystal" suggest effeminacy. "Nan feng" covers a whole range of relationshiops. I've got the text to cite for these explanations -- somewhere. I guess I should employ a librarian. ;-) P0M (talk) 09:21, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

"Ah-shan" or "asan"

Isn't "阿三" a slur used by Taiwanese against Mainland Chinese? Teh Bomb Sophist (talk) 21:26, 20 April 2009 (UTC) ：半山 is a way of rather impolitely referring to Taiwanese who have lived on the mainland, have strong connections with the mainland, etc. -- at least if I remember correctly. It's pronounced something like ban swaah.

"Shan" does not sound right for a Taiwanese word, especially for 三. But it is the Mandarin pronunciation for 三.
Maybe what you are referring to is some expression like "阿山," in which case the "a" would be the usual vocative prefix, and "san" would be "mountain" or "mainland."
We of the hook-nosed beak-nosed type get called "a-dok-a," and "dop-pi-a." It's not particularly respectful, but it's mostly used by children and I never sensed any hostility behind it.
Is it a slur when somebody picks up a nickname like "Red" or "Lefty"? I think to really be a slur there probably has to be something explicitly negative about it. 阿山 strikes me as more like hailing somebody as "city boy." It certainly singles the individual out and specifies in what way he is different. It may indicate the belief that the individual could not get water to drink if only a well happened to be available. P0M (talk) 03:40, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

To verify

Added by anon IP: [1]. Badagnani (talk) 17:21, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Children's slang/term for faeces

"Shi ba ba" wikt:㞎 wikt:屎㞎㞎 are children's slang for excrement, dung. (i.e. "poo") Note that the character 㞎 is a variant of 巴 which is unreadable on computers without the HKSCS Language Pack; it can also be colloquially rendered as 屎巴巴 otherwise. -- 李博杰  | —Talk contribs email guestbook complaints 06:58, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

recent reversions

I don't know who removed the following, but I can see why it was removed:

This is also due to Koreans and Japanese being similar in appearance to Japanese, and many Chinese believing that Koreans are copying Japanese culture.

"Japanese being similar in appearance to Japanese" is probably not what the writer wanted to say.

Koreans being similar in appearance to Japanese is one plausible reason for people who do not like Japanese taking an offensive attitude toward Koreans. But do Koreans look any more like Japanese than they look like Chinese? During the seven years I was in Taiwan I learned that many/most Chinese people there believe they can pick out the Koreans and the Japanese in a crowd. Their belief seemed to me to be that Koreans were just different from Japanese. I doubt that the assertion in the above statement could be backed up with any citation. Even an opinion poll would be better than nothing.

The assertion that many Chinese believe Koreans copy Japanese culture is problematical for two reasons. First, I challenge its factual accuracy. Let's see the proof. Second, it paints "many Chinese" as being ignorant. The Koreans and the Japanese are parts of a group that migrated (possibly back and forth) across Asia (maybe even Eurasia) a very long time ago. There are clear indications in the languages of Korea and Japan that the two groups are related. There are also, I believe, genetic indications that the Koreans have many family connections with the Japanese. If one wanted to look at cultural features spanning thousands of years, it would be unexpected if there turned out to be a similar lack of continuity. Coming down to the near past, it seems incredible that any great number of Koreans who were alive during World War II would want to adopt any cultural features from Japan. (Most people in these two groups would even want to deny that their languages are related.) That being said, it would not be unexpected to find that the Koreans adopted some cultural features from the Japanese during the time that Japan controlled Korea. (The people in Taiwan maintained the use of items of material culture like the tatami at least into the 1960s, and probably for years beyond.) Even if it somehow turns out to be true that many Chinese believe that despite everything the Koreans still copy Japanese culture, let's write the article so that it does not maintain and augment a false stereotype regarding Koreans. P0M (talk) 20:59, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Non-native words

Most of the examples are written by non-native speakers of Mandarin. For example, in Beijing people always say 'zar' whereas in Tianjin 'gege'. Also we only pronounce 'Malegebi' never any of those examples quoted.

Karolus 20080408 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.190.32.7 (talk) 23:53, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

So? Being a 'native' or 'non-native' speaker has nothing to do with it. Many of these words are regional, in which case one person from one region is not going to be familiar with a profanity from another, regardless as to whether Chinese is their language of habitual use or not. 114.78.164.217 (talk) 01:23, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

日

日 (ri) is a curse word, just google "日你妈" (literally "ri your mother"). It is not as universal as some of the other curse words. I didn't become aware of it until last few years. I think it's a regional word. --Voidvector (talk) 06:01, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

Go ahead and add it. Why was this character selected? Is it the opposite of mooning someone? Badagnani (talk) 06:04, 16 August 2008 (UTC)
No clue, I think it's a local word from southwestern China (Southwestern Mandarin). I first heard it spoken by a person from those regions. Also someone on this forum said it's a Sichuan slang (Sichuan is covered by that "southwest" region). --Voidvector (talk) 06:34, 16 August 2008 (UTC)
Additionally, regarding "日", I know of a popular joke, and its somewhat of a profane ethnic slur, but I don't know whether it should be added here. "日，本人" is a slur against Japanese, as "日本人" means "Japanese", however, the comma separates the term so that 日 means "fuck" and "本人" means "yourself" (i.e. "go fuck yourself" or "masturbate"). -- 李博杰  | —Talk contribs 06:39, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
Is there a citation for that one? Badagnani (talk) 06:45, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
Doesn't anybody read the main article before writing useless comments here?! The main page has: "rì (入) (literally "to enter)" = to fuck. The meaning is obvious and in normal contexts 入 is pronounced rù. But when it is used as a coarse expression, the "u" is elided. See 國語辤典, vol. 3, p.3257. It is also commonly seen on internet websites and forums as rì 日". Linguistic note: the traditional pronunciation is from 入 *rip ( > rì in Mandarin). I think the change to the -u vowel is a kind of "phonological euphemism", just like in English, where with "Pisces", the earlier "piss-eez" has changed to "pie-seez". Also, this word actually has nothing to do with 日 (from *rip). That character just happens to be the only one available in Mandarin to express the sound "rì".Jakob37 (talk) 04:11, 29 August 2009 (UTC)
WP:AGF. These comments were made exactly a year ago; the addition ""rì (入) (literally "to enter)" = to fuck" was only added a few months ago. -- 李博杰  | —Talk contribs email 04:19, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

To verify

Just added by anon IP: [2]. Badagnani (talk) 17:20, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

See Diu (Cantonese) and Cantonese profanity. -- 李博杰  | —Talk contribs email 04:21, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

Racism

Most Chinese consider racism to be profanity, and so I've added a section on ethnic slurs. In China, it is very serious to use any racist slur against someone; you can get into serious trouble if done in a major tourist spot. -- 李博杰  | —Talk contribs 06:08, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

I reckon "蛮子“ is actually used more commonly to refer to people from Southern China, ethnic Chinese or not. As in "南蛮“. When the concept of "barbarians" is applied to foreigners, it's more often "蛮夷“ than “蛮子”。110.174.12.47 (talk) 04:06, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Edit needs to be checked (change to nainai)

This edit probably should have been proposed at "Discussion" before implementing, but please check it now. Badagnani (talk) 17:42, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

What was your reasoning in changing it? If you had some specific text to cite that would at least prove that a single "nai" can mean "breast," or "breasts," but in spoken Chinese a single "nai" does not occur as far as I know. The one case where there is a single nǎi is 乃, which is a logical connective that is typically seen in classical Chinese and maybe in some very bookish written Chinese. "Nainai" literally is "milk milk," but the term ordinarily means "grandma." But nǎi tóu 奶頭 means "teat," so "nainai" may be a playful change on this term, two "nai" suggesting two teats. P0M (talk) 04:07, 5 December 2008 (UTC)
Stop spreading it so thick. What's 乃 doing here? except showing off your (thin) knowledge.
"Nainai means milk milk", "nainai may be a playful change"?... come on! 奶 basically means "breast". 奶奶 is a reduplication, common in Chinese to form familiar terms: 她的奶奶 her 'breasties' (if I may make up the word).
Just to show you up on the main point, here is a sentence picked at random from the web:
一边是宝宝的哭闹声，一边是我的_奶_涨的实在难受
where a "single nai" does occur. And don't tell me it's not spoken Chinese. 81.57.148.99 (talk) 23:40, 22 May 2012 (UTC)

I wasn't the one who changed it. Badagnani (talk) 04:14, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Ah... I see. Thanks for noticing the change.
I reverted it. P0M (talk) 05:05, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

origin?

In this line, "gege (Tianjin slang)" does "gege" have the same tone and/or character as the word for older brother in Mandarin?

Alirie (talk) 06:31, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

Does the line fúshòu (福寿; literally "happy long life") have any source or related information? Never heard of it before. Fenix Wang (talk) 06:00, 4 September 2012 (UTC)

Other Words/别的骂人词

我听过我家长说 ‘吃饱了’。它的意思就是说其他人的行动费用的。中华人平常用这句话吗，或就是我爸发明的词？ 也有‘臭不要脸’。可能这骂人词就是一个‘不要脸’的更重的变异。应该加进去吗？

in English: I've heard my parents use '吃饱了', an interjection (can't explain in English very well) inserted to criticise another person's actions as useless. Is this frequently heard, or merely an invention of my father's? there also is '臭不要脸’. Is this merely a stronger variation of '不要脸' or what? should we include it? Mathpianist93 (talk) 02:30, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Hello. If you believe that an entry is suitable for inclusion, then by all means be WP:BOLD and make the edit; however, entries must be genuine and not simply "made up". I myself have not heard of the phrase 吃饱了, but that does not mean that other people have not either. Do you know how common the usage of the phrase is? -- 李博杰  | —Talk contribs email 02:36, 20 January 2010 (UTC)
I have heard the use of "吃饱了撑", which roughly means "ate too much and is too full", which means the same thing User Mathpianist described above. Colipon+(Talk) 03:10, 22 January 2010 (UTC)
For the '不要脸', there are similar expressions in English as shown in Face (sociological concept).Fenix Wang (talk) 06:07, 4 September 2012 (UTC)

Bī

I remember travelling to a village a few years ago and seeing graffiti everywhere with the character 女 altered with a vertical line in the central, enclosed part of the character, apparently being used for 屄. Is this character in widespread common use or simply a local phenomenon and not merit inclusion? -Devin Ronis (d.s.ronis) (talk) 11:51, 24 December 2012 (UTC)

Proposed split

I propose that this page should be split, moving the sexual part to Mandarin Chinese sexual slang.

The main reason for splitting is that the page is malfunctioning in some browsers e.g. Internet Explorer 8. This message appeared today when I was editing:

Warning: This page contains too many expensive parser function calls.
It should have less than 500 calls, there are now 778 calls.

The reason for choosing the sexual slang to be split is that there is a separate category for that. – Fayenatic London 22:32, 7 January 2013 (UTC)

  • Oppose - I think a split along these lines would be highly detrimental to the article and would be sacrificing its comprehensiveness. I do not have an ideal machine by any standard, but I have no problem loading this page. I do however realize the article is far too long, but this split is not the best solution in my opinion. It would be better to have sections longer than 10 words be broken up into separate articles and only leave the most representative words from those sections on this page, leaving a complete list for a given section in a main article. -Devin Ronis (d.s.ronis) (talk) 04:56, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

Lua

It appears that the article is continuing to have problems after the conversion of citation templates to Lua. I see a couple of "Invalid language code" messages and a "Script error"; clicking on the "Script error" brings up a message that begins with "Lua error: too many expensive function calls."

(An examination of the page source for the "NewPP limit report" comment currently shows 856 expensive parser function calls, so I'm not sure how much the use of Lua helped performance-wise. Sorry if this turns out to be a digression) --SoledadKabocha (talk) 04:26, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

There no longer appears to be a Lua problem on the page as of now, but the expensive parser function issue still exists. --SoledadKabocha (talk) 18:30, 3 April 2013 (UTC)

Deletion

I see this article has been proposed for deletion. It contains potentially useful information (see Firefly fandom), and might be better moved to Wikibooks instead of being deleted. Crypticfirefly 04:37, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

I propose that you stop proposing — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.116.198.71 (talk) 13:10, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

If we expand this article to include the sociological aspects of Mandarin slang, or something like what is at Cockney rhyming slang and Singapore sexual slang, then this can become a legitimate article. I do not believe this article should be deleted due to the precedent set at Slang#Examples_of_slang, but the information would be also useful at Wikibooks.--Jiang 05:03, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

yeah. I notice that this article also mixes mainland slang with taiwanese slang, without distinguishing the two. these two places use quite a different set of words from each other and i think more value will be added if the differences are explained. (e.g. i think kào for example is taiwanese mandarin, ultimately from minnan). i'm no expert though so i can't say anything :(

As well as that, perhaps some distinction should be made between very vulgar/insulting terms and words that aren't really considered rude? (e.g. fuck compared to damn in English). Just that a lot of the phrases on the page are not really too insulting, and are mixed with very insulting terms. It's a bit confusing.

Turtles and eggs section

Somebody needs to clean this up, badly. Earendil56 (talk) 22:59, 26 October 2011 (UTC)


The meaning may differ based on the region. My family, who are from Singapore, explained (after much coaxing and threatening to ask my Grandmother when they refused to tell me) the definition like this: The person is a turtle because they are so slow that they can't see that their wife (spouse? I never bothered to clarify if this was a unisex term or only applied to men) was running around on them, having affairs. 24.248.74.254 (talk) 20:24, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

绿茶婊 - Green Tea Bitch

Green Tea Bitch means some girl who acts very innocently on the surface, like a virgin, but is actually very experienced with sex/ seducing men/ even prostitution I'm not sure where this will go or how to best define it so hoping that someone else who knows more about this and post it properly. ₪RicknAsia₪ 16:26, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

Found these: [3] & [4]. Might be helpful.--Howchou (talk) 04:14, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Contested deletion

This page should not be speedily deleted because... (your reason here) --Qzk123 (talk) 03:46, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

Contested deletion

This page should not be speedily deleted because... a simple translate.google.com verifies these. --EvergreenFir (talk) 03:47, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

Tigress

It doesn't refer to wife but mother. Very common thing is when a friend visits you and sees your strict mother.--77.0.111.59 (talk) 03:51, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

"San di ren"/Three stick people?

I think this is/was a common slang term commonly used in Taiwan that has a similar feel to how "hillbilly" is used in the States. I came here to see if my recollection that it translates to "Sampan people" was correct. Can anyone confirm? Thanks. Wyllys (talk) 03:39, 25 January 2014 (UTC)

Omission

Reading through it would seem that not all the words included qualify as profane. So, given that some normal language words are given then there seems to have been a glaring omission in the Sexual Intercourse section and that would be of the term zuò ài 做爱 － 做愛 Meaning "Make Love" Often shortened to just zuò 做 Whereas someone might ask, 要不要做? yào bù yào zuò? as in "Do you or don't you want to make love?" Filthymutt (talk) 10:42, 7 April 2016 (UTC)

自闭

When did "自闭" (Autistic) become a profanity? And does "autistic" have anything to do with "stupid"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 32.216.133.185 (talk) 13:11, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

这么猛的文章居然没有中文版 To my surprise, this article has no Chinese version

这文章太TM猛了吧，看得我瞠目结舌。可是这么猛的文章居然没有中文版。→_→

This article is fucking good, which astonishes me for a while, but sadly, there is no Chinese version for this article. --Yejianfei (talk) 15:20, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

You could always be bold and start a new article on the Chinese Wikipedia. --benlisquareT•C•E 16:52, 5 August 2016 (UTC)

Question

Question: is zázhǒng (雜種) a slang term -- does it belong in this article? If equivalent to the English usage, maybe it's not slang -- just rude/vulgar. Badagnani 00:21, 1 April 2006 (UTC) I am a casual user and am on mobile. I apologise for doing this improperly, however I trust that the proper admins will help me. I am merely here to provide information. As a half white half Han man I have been met with this term many times. It is both slang and vulgur. It does not appear in official/historic texts and is itself offensive. Here is evidence of the English mean https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-english-pinyin-dictionary.php?define=zazhong. At the same time I offer evidence of the more correct term: 混血儿 (hun xue'er) lit. hewn blood son. https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-english-pinyin-dictionary.php?define=hunxueer While both English translations seem to lead to half breed, the former is far more offensive in 国语 (Mandarin ) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.173.205.174 (talk) 07:05, 21 November 2016 (UTC)

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他媽的王八蛋

That not features in your article. It's the favorite one of my female Chinese teacher...from Taïwan.84.6.189.94 (talk) 16:27, 22 April 2019 (UTC)

Online reference

Although this study gives English translations without the original Chinese, it may be useful for the present article.

Keahapana (talk) 02:44, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

laowai 'foreigner' is rare?

> " xiǎo lǎopó (小老婆) = mistress (lit. "little wife" or "little old women"). Note: when combined with other words, the character 老 (lǎo, literally "old") does not always refer to age; for example, it is used in the terms 老公 (lǎogōng 'husband'), 老婆 (lǎopó 'wife'), 老鼠 (lǎoshǔ 'mouse'); or other, more rare cases such as 老虎 (lǎohǔ 'tiger'), 老鹰 (lǎoyīng 'eagle'), 老外 (lǎowài 'foreigner'); or important persons such as 老板 (lǎobǎn 'boss') or 老师 (lǎoshī 'master' or 'teacher'). 老 (lǎo 'old') thus often carries with it a degree of familiarity. "

This entry suggests that lǎowài is a rare phrase. I was of the impression this is a common daily phrase, and one of the first words that a foreigner learns on their travels. - 67.0.224.156 (talk) 00:48, 1 April 2018 (UTC)

Fixed. C9mVio9JRy (talk) 02:00, 9 April 2021 (UTC)

Dumbass typo

Hello here the word "Dumbass" is spelt wrong in the "Insult" section, I tried to change it but the filter has prevented me by detecting the edit as a potential vandalism. NaughtyPigMario (talk) 12:22, 20 May 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed CentreLeftRight ✉ 21:11, 20 May 2021 (UTC)
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