UIBE, 30ºC, Sunny
My language partner calls her mum 猪头 “pig head”. She thinks it is cute; her mum was born in the year of the pig…
We learnt in class today that before the 改革开放 reforms of Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s that liberalised trade in China, there used to be one phrase by which everyone could be addressed: 同志 Comrade. Men, women, the young and old, everyone used to be a 同志. In recent times, this phrase, 同志, has come to mean homosexual, a far cry away from the comrade status it once engendered. Of course, this a meaning that the current generation of Chinese youth understand, but from time to time you still hear the odd 老人 older person speak of their 同志.
Much has changed in the last 30 years. Now we have 先生Sir, 女士Madam, 小姐 Miss and, even, 哥们儿 Bro. It is quite incredible to witness the product of a transformed society, the result of China’s economic opening. So many Western habits, brands and phrases have been imported, and yet everything still feels very distinctly Chinese.
do not use 同志 nowadays, because 同志 sometimes means gay. i.e. 同志偶像 means gay icon ( http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh/%E5%90%8C%E5%BF%97%E5%81%B6%E5%83%8F )
ReplyDelete在有一段时间，小姐被看做是不好的词汇。大概也就是九几年或者两千年初，称呼一个年轻姑娘小姐是人家姑娘是会生气的。因为小姐也是妓女的别称……“找小姐”也是找妓女的意思……这个东西应该是广东那边更普遍。
ReplyDelete现在好多了，不过也很少管别人叫小姐，一般都称呼职业了，同学叫同学，服务员叫服务员。