Mandarin slang

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In some ways, Mandarin Chinese slang terms and insults resemble their English counterparts. For example, there are many slang words and insults involving sex. While many insults and expletives involve someone's mother, one may also insult someone by insulting their ancestors. Other Mandarin insults accuse people of not being human. Another difference is that Mandarin words for excrement or feces are much less commonly used in slang and insults, and there are few counterparts to Christian or Islamic blasphemy (most Chinese do not believe in gods nowadays).^{[citation needed]} Finally, some terms can be written in different ways, because the Chinese language has so many homonyms, and also because Internet users sometimes use alternate characters to avoid censorship. Sometimes this means naive speakers use expressions that are much coarser than they realize.

Like English slang, many Chinese slang terms involve the genitalia or other sexual terms. For penis:

jībā (Simplified: 鸡巴, Traditional: 雞巴/鷄巴, IM abbreviation: G8), also jījī (S: 鸡鸡, T: 雞雞/鷄鷄, IM: GG) = cock (used as early as the Yuan Dynasty)
xiǎo dìdì (小弟弟) = cock (lit. "little younger brother")
kuà xià wù (跨下物) = penis (literary)
yīnjīng (S: 阴茎, T: 陰莖) = penis (scientific)

There seem to be more words for vagina, which is more common as an insult than the ones for penis:

bī (屄, 逼, 比, IM: B) = cunt
èrbī (二屄) = fuck-up (lit. "double vagina"; general insult)
shǎbī (傻屄) = stupid person
sāobī (S: 骚屄, T: 騷屄) = bitch (lit. "lewd cunt")
chòubī (臭屄) = stinking cunt
lànbī (S: 烂屄, T: 爛屄) = rotten cunt
yīndào (S: 阴道, T: 陰道) = vagina (scientific)

In addition to the above expressions used as insults directed against women, other insults involve intimating they are prostitutes:

chòubiǎozi (臭婊子) = stinking whore
jiànhuò (S: 贱货, T: 賤貨) = slut (lit. "cheap commodity")
sāohuò (S: 骚货, T: 騷貨) = slut (lit. "lewd commodity")
xiǎojiě (小姐) = still means "Miss" in many contexts but now also connotes prostitute to many young women, as it suggests expressions like zuò xiǎojiě (做小姐) or sānpéi xiǎojiě (三陪小姐) , which refers to bargirls who may also be prostitutes

In Chinese, the word for tofu can be used to refer to a woman's breasts:

chī dòufu (S: 吃豆腐) = a commonly used euphemism for implying the unsolicited groping of a woman's breast or other body parts. Likewise, mài dòufu (S: 卖豆腐; literally "selling tofu") is a polite euphemism for the ancient trade of prostitution.

Male masturbation, at least, has several vulgar expressions, in addition to two formal/scientific ones that refer to both male and female masturbation (shǒuyín 手淫 and zìwèi 自慰):

dăshǒuqiāng (S: 打手枪, T: 打手槍) = male masturbation (lit. "firing a handgun")
dǎfēijī (S: 打飞机, T: 打飛機) = male masturbation (lit. "hitting an airplane")
wǔdǎyī (五打一) = male masturbation (lit. "five beating one")

As in English, a vulgar word for the sexual act is used in insults and expletives:

cào (操/肏) = fuck (the variant character 肏 was in use as early as the Ming dynasty in the novel Jin Ping Mei)
cào nǐ zǔzōng shíbā dài (操你祖宗十八代) = fuck your ancestors to the eighteenth generation
wǒ kào (我靠) = fuck! or fuckin' awesome! or holy shit! (Originally from Taiwan, this expression has spread to the mainland, where it is generally not considered to be vulgar.)

Insulting someone's mother is also common:

tā māde (S: 他妈的, T: 他媽的, IM: TMD) = damn (lit. "his mother's". This Chinese expression is actually not exceptionally strong; in the 1920's the famous writer Lu Xun joked that this should be China's national curse word)
tā māde niǎo (S: 他妈的鸟, T: 他媽的鳥) = goddamned (lit. "his mother's dick"; 鸟/鳥 literally is "bird", but used here as a euphemism for diǎo; 屌; "penis")
qù nǐ nǎinaide (去你奶奶的) = fuck off (lit. "go to your grandma")
qù nǐ māde (S: 去你妈的, T: 去你媽的) = fuck off (lit. "go to your mom")
qù nǐde (去你的) = fuck off/get lost (milder)
nǐmāde bī (S: 你妈的屄, T: 你媽的屄) = your mother's cunt
cào nǐ niáng (操你娘) / cào nǐ mā (S: 操你妈, T: 操你媽) = fuck your mother
gàn nǐ mā (S: 干你妈, T: 幹你媽) / gàn nǐ lǎo mǔ (S: 干你老母, T: 幹你老母) = fuck your mother; kill your mother

Insults include implying that the interlocutor's mother or even grandmother was unfaithful. "Turtle" is commonly explained to be an insult because a turtle does not know its father.

wángbā (王八) / wàngbā (忘八) = cuckold; this was an insult as early as the Song dynasty; some argue that the 忘八 meant "forgetting the eight virtues"
wángbādàn (王八蛋, informal simplified: 忘八旦) / wàngbāgāozi (忘八羔子) = bastard (lit. "turtle egg")
guī sūnzi (S: 龟孙子, T: 亀孫子) / guī érzi (S: 龟儿子, T: 亀兒子) = bastard (lit. "turtle grandson")
dài lǜmàozi (S: 戴绿帽子, T: 戴綠帽子) = to be a cuckold (lit. "wear a green hat," supposedly because male brothel workers in the Tang dynasty had to wear green hats)
zázhǒng (S: 杂种, T: 雜種) = bastard (lit. "crossbreed"; originally racist, it is now sometimes racist and sometimes not)

While there are vulgar expressions in English referring to the buttocks or rectum, there are no real equivalents in Mandarin. Pìgu yǎn (屁股眼), the expression for rectum, is not vulgar, but it occurs in various curses involving an imperforate anus:

jiào nǐ shēng háizi méi pìgu yǎn (S: 叫你生孩子没屁股眼, T: 叫你生孩子沒屁股眼) = literally, "May your child be born with an imperforate anus"; sometimes méi pìgu yǎn (S: 没屁股眼, T: 沒屁股眼) is used as an epithet similar to "damned"

As in the West, highly sexual women have been feared:

húli jīng (狐狸精) = bitch (overly seductive woman; lit. "fox spirit")
sānbā (三八) = airhead, braggart, slut (lit. "three eight"). Used to insult women. One derivation claims that at one point in the Qing dynasty, foreigners were only permitted to circulate on the eighth, eighteenth, and twenty-eighth of each month, and the Chinese deprecated these aliens by calling them 三八, but others claim 三八 refers to March 8th: International Women's Day.

Occasionally, slang words with a negative connotation are turned around and used positively:

wǒ cào (我操) = amazing
niúbī (牛屄/牛逼) = fucking awesome (literally "cow cunt"; possibly influenced by the expression chuī niú pí; 吹牛皮, which means "to brag")
diǎo (屌) / niǎo (S: 鸟, T: 鳥) = cock; this was an insult as long ago as the Jin Dynasty. Now it sometimes also means "cool" or "outrageous", thanks in large part to the pop star Jay Chou.

Other insults include the word hùn (混), which means "mixed-up":

hùnzhàng (S: 混账, T: 混賬) = son of a bitch
hùndàn (混蛋 / S: 浑蛋, T: 渾蛋) = son of a bitch
hūndàn (昏蛋) = son of a bitch
hùnqiú (混球) = son of a bitch

Perhaps due to the influence of wángbādàn (王八蛋), dàn (蛋; "egg") is used in a number of other insults in addition to hùndàn (混蛋):

bèndàn (笨蛋) = dummy, fool
dǎodàn (倒蛋 / S: 捣蛋, T: 搗蛋) = "to cause trouble"
gǔndàn (S: 滚蛋, T: 滾蛋) = get lost!
huàidàn (S: 坏蛋, T: 壞蛋) = bad person
hútú dàn (糊涂蛋) = confused/clueless person
qíongguāng dàn (S: 穷光蛋, T: 窮光蛋) = a poor/penniless person

For some reason, guā (瓜; melon or gourd) is also used in insults:

shǎguā (傻瓜; also shǎzi, 傻子) = dummy, fool (in use as early as the Yuan dynasty)
dàiguā (呆瓜; also dàizi, 呆子) = dummy, fool

Fèi (S: 废, T: 廢; "useless") appears in a number of insults:

wōnang fèi (S: 窝囊废, T: 窩囊廢) = loser
fèi rén (S: 废人, T: 廢人) = useless person

Because shame (or face) is important in Chinese culture, insulting someone as "shameless" is much stronger than in English:

bùyàoliǎn (S: 不要脸, T: 不要臉) = shameless, lit. "doesn't want face"

Other insults accuse people of lacking qualities expected of a human being:

chùsheng (畜生) = animal (these characters are also used for Japanese "chikushō", which may mean beast, but is also used as an expletive, like "damn!")
nǐ bú shì rén (你不是人) = you're not human (lit: "you are not a person")
nǐ shì shénme dōngxi (S: 你是什么东西, T: 你是什麽東西) = you're less than human (compares the level of a person to that of an object)
nǐ búshì dōngxi (S: 你不是东西, T: 你不是東西) = you're less than human (implies less worth than an object)
bùyàoliǎn de dōngxī (S: 不要脸的东西, T: 不要臉的東西) = you're shameless and less than human (lit.: "you are a thing that has no shame")

Sǐ (死; "dead") is used in a number of insults:

sǐ guǐ (死鬼) = bastard
sānbā (三八) = airhead, slut (used to insult women. One explanation is that at one point in the Qing dynasty, foreigners were only permitted to circulate on the eighth, eighteenth, and twenty-eighth of each month, and the Chinese deprecated these aliens by calling them 三八. Ironically, March 8th is International Women's Day)
sǐ sānbā (死三八)/ chòu sānbā (臭三八) = bitch
sǐ bùyàoliǎn (S: 死不要脸, T: 死不要臉) = shameless (lit: "[you] died without shame")

Whereas "shit" is a vulgar word in English, none of the various words for "excrement" in Chinese are in themselves vulgar, and are less commonly used as expletives. Perhaps because farting results in something that is useless even for fertilizer: "fàng pì" (放屁; lit. "to fart") is an expletive in Chinese:

fàng pì (放屁) = bullshit，nonsense (literally "to fart"; used as an expletive as early as the Yuan dynasty)
pìhuà (S: 屁话, T: 屁話) = nonsense

The fact that many insults are prefaced with the Chinese word for dog attest to the animal's low status:

gǒuzǎizi (狗崽子; also 狗仔子) = son of a dog
gǒu pì (狗屁) = bullshit, nonsense (lit. "dog fart"; in use as early as 1750 in the Qing dynasty novel Ru Lin Wai Shi (The Scholars)
gǒu pì bù tōng (狗屁不通) = incoherent, nonsensical
gǒu niáng yǎng de (S: 狗娘养的, T: 狗娘養的) = son of a bitch (lit. "raised by a dog mother")
gǒurìde (狗日的) = damned (from Liu Heng's story "Dogshit Food", lit. "dog japanese possessive marker)
gǒushǐ duī (狗屎堆) = a person who behaves badly (lit. "a pile of dog excrement"); gǒushǐ (狗屎), or "dog excrement," was used to describe people of low moral character as early as the Song dynasty
gǒuzázhǒng (S: 狗杂种, T: 狗雜種) = literally "mongrel dog," a variation on zázhǒng (S: 杂种, T: 雜種), above.
zǒugǒu (走狗) = often translated into English as "running dog", it means an unprincipled person who helps or flatters other, more powerful and often evil people
gǒutuǐzi (狗腿子) / gǒutuǐ (狗腿) = variant of zǒugǒu (走狗) (lit. dog legs)

In at least one case, rabbit is part of an insult:

xiǎotùzǎizi (小兔崽子) = son of a rabbit (quite ironically, this insult is often used by parents to insult their children)

One of the few insults connected to the supernatural is not used to damn but to compare the insulted person to a disliked god:

wēnshén (瘟神) = troublemaker (literally "plague god")

Some expressions are harder to explain:

èrbǎiwǔ (二百五) = stupid person (see 250)

While there are various circumlocutions in Chinese for homosexual, like duǎnxiù (S: 断袖, T: 斷袖), yútáo (余桃), and bōli (玻璃), these are less common as insults. Tóngzhì (同志) (lit. "comrade") was recently adopted in Hong Kong and Taiwan to mean homosexual, and is frequently used on the mainland.