Tag Archives: 中文

Gen Z I’m coming for you! Spoiling Taiwanese Slang

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Fans of the blog will know that I enjoy exploring new slang, thereby making it not cool anymore. Thanks for the explanations here. Up on the victim list today are the following:

暈爛 yūnlàn basically expresses that you love something so much, you’ll find it hard to stop. But literally means that you’ll get so dizzy from something that you get sick, or allow yourself to get so dizzy from it that you’ll feel ill.
An example from the wilds below:

“I can’t get enough of single eyelids and dark-framed glasses.”

解／好解／很解／超解 jiě/hǎo jiě/hěn jiě/chāo jiě This is basically “the ick,” something that puts you off someone you originally were into. I feel this is kind of an abbreviation for 「解脫」 jiě​tuō (to be freed of, to be absolved from).
An example from ptt below (2024, I know! I’m so up to the moment.)

Do other girls get the ick from men who get tax rebates?

觸 chù bastardization (what did he say!?) of the English word “true,” used in much the same way as “True that!”
An example from 2025’s version of ptt, Threads (a good source on Gen Z slang):

Post complaining about the lack of political awareness among knitting women on Threads and the verbose reply, “True that!”

普信男 pǔ​xìn​nán A three who thinks he’s a ten (an average-looking guy who thinks he’s god’s gift to women/men). It can also be applied to women if you switch 男 to 女, but that’s no fun.
Fun example from Threads below:

Ko Wen-je: The bailiff was nice to me; 90% of the Taipei District Court bailiffs are Ko Wen-je fans.
Judge: The bailiffs are polite to everyone.
————
The 7-11 clerk smiled at me, he must fancy me.
Post reply: The ultimate incarnation of the average-looking guy acting like he’s god’s gift!

要確捏 / 要確欸 yào què niē​ / yào què ēi The equivalent of a sarcastic “Are you sure about that?” used on the internet to poke fun at people behaving stupidly.
This Threads post shows a few people on YouBikes who appear to be looking for a YouBike stop at a motorway/highway (roads you’re not allowed to cycle on) rest stop in Taiwan.

However, in the replies, someone points out that there is access to a small town via backroads, so they must have just gone the wrong way and ended up at the motorway rest stop.
To be continued?

‘The Other’s Other’ by Kuo Tien-yu 郭天祐的「他者的他者」

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他者的他者 （節錄）

遺忘彷彿重新來過，抬眼，預感這是荒涼
面向那古老的他者，我輕啟雙唇
艱澀地摩擦聲帶

「倘若靈魂擁有語言。記住他們的迷蹤
但請忘記，每個言說的當下都是失去……

The Other’s Other (Extract)
Forgetting seems to take over again, I raise my eyes with a desolate foreboding
Faced with this ancient other, I gently move my lips
My vocal cords grate together

「Suppose the soul had language. Remember their straying from the path
But please forget that every instant of speech is loss…


「他者」 or “the other” is one of those overused pseudo-intellectual terms in Taiwan (readers are welcome to leave a comment if they have any other nominations) that tend to infect poetry and fiction written by students forced to read too much Derrida or psychoanalytic texts. This normally results in painful attempts at profoundity masking rather empty writing, but for some reason, this extract of a poem captured my imagination one day in the MRT. Perhaps because of the vagueness of language in the original, leaving it up to the reader to piece together (for example, in the English translation, I used the first person, whereas the Chinese doesn’t need to specify). The sentences can also be parsed differently to what I interpreted above.

You can also hear it recited aloud in the video above!

The poet, Kuo Tien-yu, was born in Kaohsiung and studied anthropology at National Taiwan University.

Passive Aggressive Notes: Being insincere through font size in Chinese!

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Found this beautifully-crafted note in one of the toilets at the Red House (紅樓), part of its power is that it’s actually stuck on the door in a way that seals the door shut:

本廁間又再 再 再 再 再次 因馬桶被丟入異物造成堵塞，請至本廁間使用的有緣人多加留意，勿將 衛生紙、濕紙巾、保險套、內褲、絲襪、垃圾袋、牙線、棉花棒、口紅、筆及所有不是尿及屎的個人隨身物品不小心丟入馬桶喔！

感謝體恤打掃婆婆的辛勞

本廁間修繕待料中 預計6/22修繕

This cubicle has been blocked again, again, again, again and again, due to inappropriate things being thrown into the toilet bowl. Can those special people that are drawn to use this toilet be more careful and not accidentally dispose of any personal item that’s not piss or shit into the toilet bowl, including toilet paper, wet wipes, condoms, underwear, stockings, trash bags, dental floss, cotton buds, lip stick and pens!

Thanks for understanding how hard our cleaning ladies are working.

This cubicle is under renovation until June 22

The font size seems to underline the sarcastic tone of the note and the combination of a polite register along with vulgar language. To be fair, that toilet seems to attract a lot of strange people.

ABOMINATIONS! Adulterated Chinese characters in the wild!

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Just as in English advertising you’ll see some letters substituted with images, the same happens in Chinese, and you’ll often see parts of characters replaced. I’ve captured a few examples below, but let me know if you spot any yourself!

In what we’ll call questionable taste. A kid with an open mouth takes the place of the 「口」 component of 「吃」 in this sign (and yes, 吃 has most if not all of the connotations of the word “eat” in English). It reads 「吃我 早午餐」 (Eat Me – Brunch).

This congee shop has creatively substituted the central 「米」 component of 「粥」 for a stack of steaming bowls of congee.

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Chess in Taiwan: Brian Tseng and playing for Team Taiwan

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Although I dabbled in my youth, I’m pretty much a post-Queen’s Gambit chess player. I’ve really gotten into it over the past few years, although I’m still at around 1000 ELO (Daily), so just thought I’d provide a bit of info on the scene in Taiwan and some useful vocab in Mandarin.

via GIPHY

Most of my interactions have been online, but there are some meet-ups in Taipei, also happy to play over-the-board with anyone in and around Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall over lunch times.

If you want to play for Taiwan, you can join Team Taiwan on Chess.com (you can only play for one country at a time, but they’re flexible about the flag displayed in your profile). Also, feel free to add me and play me.

Although Xiangqi (象棋) is more popular here, there is a growing community of chess players too, including stand-up comic, presenter and podcaster Brian Tseng. He’s yet to disclose his Chess.com username, but he’s mentioned chess a good few times in his podcast, particularly in the King’s Gambit (王翼棄兵) episode, where he talks about applying the lessons of chess to everyday life.

You can find some cool stickers on Instagram, by searching for “rvdtor.”

You can also follow the progress of World Chess Champion Ding Liren (丁立人) on Weibo, although he seems to be playing less these days. And check out this Taichung-based chess YouTuber!

Chess Vocab:

西洋棋 xī​yáng​qí chess
棋盤 qí​pán chess board
一盤棋 yī​pánqí​ a game of chess
下棋 xià​qí to play chess
下一步棋 xià​yī​bùqí to make a chess move
隻 zhī measure word for piece
國王 guó​wáng king
皇后 huáng​hòu queen
主教 zhǔ​jiào bishop
馬 / 小馬 / 騎士 ​mǎ / xiǎomǎ / qí​shì knight
城堡 chéng​bǎo rook/castle
斜線 xié​xiàn diagonals (measure word: 條 tiáo)
兵 / 小兵 bīng / xiǎobīng pawn
黑格 hēigé black square
白格 báigé white square
黑 / 白格主教 hēi / báigé zhǔ​jiào black / white-square bishop
吃 / 敲 chī / qiāo to take (a piece)
翻騎士 fānqí​shì to move a knight

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「某某很雷，跟他共事很累。」 What a difference a tone makes…

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Tones play an even more important role in Chinese than accurate pronunciation a lot of the time, but you know you’re swimming in the deep end when even native speakers have to clarify the difference.

One of my friends was talking about a colleague of theirs and said:

「XX很雷，跟他共事很累。」
“XX is a real liability, working with him is exhausting.”

When the person he was talking to appeared confused, another friend clarified 「地雷的雷」.

Literally “thunder,” or “landmine” in the context of 「地雷」, 「雷」lei2 is an adjective used to describe someone as clumsy or always mucking things up. My friend made a real effort to emphasize that it was second tone, to distinguish it from 「累」 lei4 (tiring/tired).

Humblebragging with the Palace of Versailles 「凡爾賽」文體

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The humble brag needs little explanation, but it was interesting to hear the host of the GooAye podcast use a Chinese term that means something similar the other day when talking about him and a bunch of other renowned Taiwanese podcasters becoming fathers recently. Basically, he said that people have been recommending him thought pieces on how to be a parent, and some of them are a little fucked up.

我覺得很多那種……推給我的文章，我看看，我覺得是生病了。因為像是，可能家長當時自己書沒有念好吧。還有什麼，家長有念好，但是沒有念到頂，所以他就有點希望投射在自己的小朋友身上，就是我做不到的事情小朋友要幫我達成。就很有病這樣。然後還有一些甚至是那種很凡爾賽的文章。「凡爾賽」是中國用語，所以支語警察不要來抓我。我只是覺得這種用詞還蠻精準的。這是講說有些人不經意地去炫富–不經意地，但是這個不經意地決對是故意的–不經意地去講自己的優勢、自己家人的優勢。這個東西叫做一個凡爾賽的文體。那舉例來說「喔！我是叫我老公不要買東西給我。很煩喔！他又買一台maserati給我。」

Among the pieces people have recommended, I looked at a lot of them and they were pretty messed up. Like maybe the parent hadn’t studied properly when they were young, or, in some cases, the parent had done well in their studies, but never really pursued them to any conclusion. So it’s like they want to project themselves onto their children so that their children can help them accomplish what they never could. It’s fucked up like that. Then some of them are even “humblebrag” pieces. This word for “humblebrag” is used mainly in China, so don’t come after me word police. I just think it’s a pretty accurate expression. It refers to people who accidentally–and of course this “accidentally” is totally on purpose–let slip their own strengths and the strengths of their family members. This is called the “Versailles” genre of writing. So, for example: “Ugh! I told my husband not to buy me anything else. He’s so annoying! He only went and bought me a new maserati!”

After a bit of a search on Chinese social media, I realized that it can mean humblebragging, or satire of humblebraggers. As well as the obvious reference to the subtlety of the Palace of Versailles, the phrase (like a lot of popular Chinese slang) originated in Japanese manga. The Rose of Versailles / ベルサイユのばら / 凡爾賽玫瑰 (玉女英豪 in Taiwan) was originally serialized in 1972-1973, but was revamped from 2013-2018. There have also been an anime series and a film.

How do you say we’re fixing the road surface in fancy? 「路面銑鋪」

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I came across these spray-painted messages on the road on the way to my local 7-11 last night. Messages sprayed on to the street are common in Taiwan, and they can be written by car/motorbike tow trucks telling people what number to call to get their vehicle back or construction companies or the city government telling people not to park in the street as construction is about to take place.

I could see that it said 「路面xx勿停車」 (“road surface XX, don’t park), but I was a little puzzled by the third and fourth characters, as they both looked like they had 「金」 as radicals. I assumed that as they were repaving the road, it’s likely that the second one was 「鋪」 (to pave), but I’d never seen the character 「銑」 before. So I wandered down the street a bit further to see another of the messages:

The 「鋪」 was a bit clearer in this pic, so I tried to look up the characters 「銑鋪」 (xiǎnpū), and came across this old video from the China Times, suggesting that I wasn’t the only one to be puzzled:

According to this video, the original meaning of 「銑」, milling, has been extended here, to mean “to roll flat/steamroll.” It seems to be a more technical way of referring to resurfacing roads, but a more common and colloquial way to say this is 「路面翻修」 (lùmiàn fānxiū).

Taiwanese Grumbles in Graffiti: Give Us Some Cash

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Saw this new piece of graffiti on the border of the Zhongzheng and Wanlong Districts of Taipei. It reads 「民不聊生」 (“The people have no way of making a living”) and across the top in a slightly different shade (possibly added by another person?) is 「發現金」 (“Issue Cash”), suggesting the government give out cash for stimulus.

Taiwan is back in heightened Level 2 restrictions, meaning that while restaurants and other venues are gradually opening up, bars and clubs and many entertainment venues are still closed. Not going to jinx it, but cases have been down for several days now, so hopefully life can return to normal soon and business owners will be able to start making some money again.

Big in Taiwan: Bobby Hill – 佛系［Insert your job here］法

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Recently I’ve started to hear the term 「佛系……法」 a lot. The term plays with the Buddhist concept of noninterference, essentially suggesting that instead of trying to follow your boss’ direction/ study in school/encourage internet users to Like your page/earn money etc., you should just resign yourself to the fact that things are beyond your control and that if what you want is meant to be, it will happen without any effort from you. In one sense it can be used as an attack on the perceived lack of a work ethic among millennials, suggesting that they think they deserve to get their dreams served to them on a plate, while millennials themselves have adopted it to counter this narrative, as an expression of their cynicism at how much of a difference they can make by following the rules. Different verbs or job titles can be inserted into the blank depending on what the author is describing.

The first time I saw it was when a friend sent a meme featuring a familiar cartoon character, Bobby Hill from King of the Hill. Although my friend had no idea who Bobby Hill was, the meme featuring him meditating while incense burns in the foreground seems to have caught the Taiwanese imagination. I’ve put some examples of the use of the meme I found on the internet below. There was one example I saw of an English use of this meme, but it doesn’t seem to have caught the imagination of the English-speaking world quite so much:

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Source: https://dailyview.tw/Popular/Detail/1656

 

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