A what's what of Canto-phrases
Many expats who read Chinese have complained that it is tough keeping up with weird Canto-expressions the local papers throw at readers. So here is your guide to the latest tabloid phraseology.
Wai kor: 1 Viagra. 2 A very strong man or strong big brother. 3 China's first spaceman Yang Liwei (right), whose last Mandarin character 'wei' is pronounced 'wai' in Cantonese.
Chow kwun: 1 The honourable Judge Chow. 2 Television actor Adam Cheng Siu-chow, whose soap operas and martial arts dramas have inevitably coincided with stock market crashes since the 1980s. 3 Someone with very bad luck. 4 Former High Court judge and Equal Opportunities Commission boss Michael Wong Kin-chow, who resigned on Thursday.
Tong tong: 1 Sweets, or something very sweet. 2 Daffy Tong Hok-tak, finance expert and long-time lover of late singer Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing. 3 Financial chief Henry Tang Ying-yen - whose family name is pronounced Tong in Cantonese.
(Lo Down is at a loss to explain how the nickname migrated from Daffy to Henry. As far as we know, Mr Tang is a very traditional family man. Perhaps 'Tong tong' merely refers to his sweet personality, contrary to nasty and obviously untrue reports about his real-politicking.)
See Pa: Cantonese transliteration of Cepa, combining the Chinese character for a corpse with that for crawling. A meaningless phrase in itself, it invokes the image of the living dead.
