Mandarin Chinese profanity

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Mandarin Chinese profanity consists of many slang words and insults involving sex. While many taboo words and expletives involve insulting someone's mother, it is also common to show contempt by scorning another person's 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 people do not practice religion with the same level of zeal as Christians or Muslims). Finally, some terms can be written in different ways, because Mandarin Chinese has so many homonyms, because uncommon slang characters were not supported by earlier character encodings, and also because Internet users sometimes use alternate characters to avoid censorship.[citation needed] Sometimes this means naive speakers use expressions that are much coarser than they realize.

Contents

[edit] Sex

[edit] Penis

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

[edit] Vagina

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

[edit] Whores

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 (simplified Chinese: 贱货; traditional Chinese: 賤貨) = slut (lit. "cheap commodity")
  • mài dòufu (simplified Chinese: 卖豆腐; literally "selling tofu") is a euphemism for prostitution.
  • sāohuò (simplified Chinese: 骚货; traditional Chinese: 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
  • xiǎolǎopó (小老婆) = mistress (lit. "little wife" or "little old woman")

[edit] Breasts

  • mīmī (咪咪; literally cat's purring "meow meow") is a euphemism for breast.
  • mántóu (traditional Chinese: 饅頭; simplified Chinese: 馒头; literally "steamed bun") also refers to a woman's breasts; as mantou is typical of northern Chinese cuisine this term is used primarily in northern China.
  • fúshòu (福寿; literally "happy long life")
  • nǎinǎi (奶奶)
  • zar (Beijing slang)
  • gege (Tianjin slang)

[edit] Masturbation

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 (simplified Chinese: 打手枪; traditional Chinese: 打手槍) = male masturbation (lit. "firing a handgun")
  • dǎfēijī (simplified Chinese: 打飞机; traditional Chinese: 打飛機) = male masturbation (lit. "hitting an airplane") A term which originated from the Cantonese language.
  • lǚguǎn/lǚguǎnr (捋管/捋管儿) = male masturbation (lit. "stroke the pipe")
  • wǔdǎyī (五打一) = male masturbation (lit. "five beating one")

[edit] Sexual intercourse

  • cào (肏/操) = fuck!
  • gàn (干) = to do = fuck
  • rì (日) = fuck![citation needed]

[edit] Insults

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

  • cào (肏/操) = fuck (the variant character 肏 was in use as early as the Ming dynasty in the novel Jin Ping Mei). 操 is usually used as a substitute for 肏 in print or on the computer, because 肏 is often not available for typesetting or input.
  • cào nǐ zǔzōng shíbā dài (肏你祖宗十八代) = fuck your ancestors to the eighteenth generation
  • cào nǐ zǔzōng shíqi dài (肏你祖宗十七代) = fuck your ancestors to the seventeenth generation
  • cào nǐ zǔzōng shíliù dài (肏你祖宗十六代) = fuck your ancestors to the sixteenth generation
  • cào nǐ zǔzōng shíwu dài (肏你祖宗十五代) = fuck your ancestors to the fifteenth generation
  • cào nǐ zǔzōng shísì dài (肏你祖宗十四代) = fuck your ancestors to the fourteenth generation
  • cào nǐ zǔzōng shísan dài (肏你祖宗十三代) = fuck your ancestors to the thirteenth 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.)

[edit] Mother

Insulting someone's mother is also common:

[edit] Illegitimacy

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.

[edit] Buttocks

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) or pìyǎnr (屁眼兒/屁眼儿), the expression for rectum, is not vulgar, but it occurs in various curses involving an imperforate anus:

[edit] Sluts

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

  • 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.
  • gōng gòng qì chē (公共汽车) = slut (lit. "public bus") used for a women who sleeps around, as in "everyone has had a ride"

[edit] Positive connotations

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

  • wǒ cào (我肏) = holy fuck (lit. "I fuck")
  • 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"). This phrase is sometimes also written as 牛B, 牛比, 牛鼻, or 牛逼.
  • diǎo (屌) / niǎo (simplified Chinese: 鸟; traditional Chinese: 鳥) = cock; this was an insult as long ago as the Jin Dynasty. Now it sometimes also means "fucking cool" or "fucking outrageous", thanks in large part to the pop star Jay Chou.

[edit] Mixed-up

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

[edit] Eggs

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):

[edit] Melons

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

[edit] Useless

Fèi (simplified Chinese: 废, traditional Chinese: 廢; "useless") appears in a number of insults:

  • liúmáng (Chinese: 流氓) = scoundrel or pervert (the word originally meant vagrant); often used by women to insult men who make aggressive advances

[edit] Face

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

[edit] Girlish

  • Niángniangqiāng (Chinese: 娘娘腔) is a pejorative used to describe Chinese males who are extremely effeminate in their speaking style. It is related to the term sājiào (撒娇, to whine), but is predominantly said of males who exhibit a rather "girlish" air of indecisiveness and immaturity. Adherents of both tend to lengthen sentence-final particles while maintaining a higher-pitched intonation all throughout. The usage of the tilde as an Internet meme reflects the popularization of this style of speaking, which is often perceived by Westerners as being cute or seductive.

[edit] Inhuman

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 (simplified Chinese: 你是什么东西; traditional Chinese: 你是什麽東西) = you're less than human, literally: What kind of object are you? (compares the level of a person to that of an object)
  • nǐ búshì dōngxi (simplified Chinese: 你不是东西; traditional Chinese: 你不是東西) = you're less than human (implies less worth than an object)
  • bùyàoliǎn de dōngxī (simplified Chinese: 不要脸的东西; traditional Chinese: 不要臉的東西) = you're shameless and less than human (lit.: "you are a thing that has no shame")

[edit] Death

Sǐ (死; "dead", or more precisely, "damn(ed)") is used in a number of insults:

  • sǐ guǐ (死鬼) = bastard
  • sǐ sānbā (死三八) / chòu sānbā (臭三八) = bitch
  • sǐ bùyàoliǎn (simplified Chinese: 死不要脸; traditional Chinese: 死不要臉) = shameless (lit.: "[you] died without shame")
  • qu sǐ (去死) = go die

[edit] Shit

Originally the various Mandarin Chinese words for "excrement" were less commonly used as expletives, but that is changing. Perhaps because farting results in something that is useless even for fertilizer: "fàng pì" (放屁; lit. "to fart") is an expletive in Mandarin:

  • qù chī dàbiàn (去吃大便) [Go] Eat shit! (大便 is neither an expletive nor does it have the same effect as 'shit' in English.)
  • fàng pì (放屁) = bullshit, nonsense (literally "to fart"; used as an expletive as early as the Yuan dynasty. Taiwanese just simply say "pi" or "ge pi" when referring to "bullshit" (as in lies), as "fang pi" is taken literally "to fart".)
  • pìhuà (simplified Chinese: 屁话; traditional Chinese: 屁話) = nonsense

[edit] Animals

[edit] Dogs

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

  • gǒuzǎizi (狗崽子/狗仔子) = son of a dog (English equivalent: "son of a bitch")
  • 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 (simplified Chinese: 狗娘养的; traditional Chinese: 狗娘養的) = son of a bitch (lit. "raised by a dog mother")
  • gǒurìde (狗日的) = son of a bitch (from Liu Heng's story "Dogshit Food", lit. "dog fuck)
  • 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. Due to Western influence, as well as the similar sound, this has become a synonym for bullshit in some circles.
  • gǒuzázhǒng (simplified Chinese: 狗杂种; traditional Chinese: 狗雜種) = literally "mongrel dog," a variation on zázhǒng (simplified Chinese: 杂种; traditional Chinese: 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; in use in this sense since the Qing dynasty
  • gǒutuǐzi (狗腿子) / gǒutuǐ (狗腿) = variant of zǒugǒu (走狗) (lit. "running dog" or dog legs)

[edit] Rabbits

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)

[edit] Divinity

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")

[edit] Miscellaneous

Some expressions are harder to explain:

  • èrbǎiwǔ (二百五) = stupid person/idiot (see 250)

[edit] Homosexuality

While there are various circumlocutions in Mandarin Chinese for homosexual, like duǎnxiù (simplified Chinese: 断袖; traditional Chinese: 斷袖), yútáo (余桃), and bōlí (玻璃, after "BL", Boys' Love), 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. After the success of Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, duànbèi (simplified Chinese: 断背; traditional Chinese: 斷背) (lit. "brokeback") has also become popular.

[edit] See also

Wikibooks
Wikibooks Chinese has a page on the topic of

[edit] References