歪果仁 for foreigner?

[vellocet]

I got a comment on my Wechat post wherein I bitched about the excessively difficult captchas used by the official train ticket app 12306.cn. (Seriously, they're a nightmare.)  It said, "哈哈哈。欺负歪果仁"  After copying the text into Pleco Reader, the unfamiliar characters were defined as "internet slang for waiguoren".  What's the deal with this?  I know sometimes internet users will use alternate characters like the old and busted grass-mud-horse meme, but why this word?  Why would people use a substitute cypher?  It doesn't seem controversial.  Also, I'm a little curious why my friend used this spelling on my Wechat reply.  But mostly interested about the first question.  

[Lu]

From what I understand, it's a way to be funny. Compare 童靴 for 同学: it's not about avoiding the censor (or at least not always, and not in these cases), just about saying a familiar thing in a more interesting way. Internet slang, both in English and in Chinese, is for the most part entirely about playing around with text, there's often not really a reason beyond a lot of people enjoying certain puns and jokes.

[Guest123]

it seams this is a kind of humour. In Chinese there only a little more than 400 syllables, a lot of words sound the same. So in chinese lots of jokes and superstitions a based on this similarity. Besides, foreigners often pronounce wrong so their pronounciation sounds more like 歪果仁 than 外国人。 Similar is 油菜 instead of 有才，or 好大的掸子(duster) instead of 好大的胆子. 

Also, because of chinese cenorship, some words are blocked on the net, so people use homophones.

[roddy]

All just part of the general mistreatment of language. English can't do exactly the same, but it'll happily mess with grammar in a constant desperate search for novelty. Because Internet. Simples.

[陳德聰]

I was under the impression this particular one came specifically from making fun of the way foreigners mispronounce the word 外國人. I find it offensive, but then again, I can even find the word 外國人 offensive but that's a different post.

[roddy]

Could be, but then who's being made fun of with 米国 or 同鞋 or... I don't know, that's all I got. I'm out of touch. 

[陳德聰]

米國 actually means America though... And 童鞋 uses 諧音 for a cutesy effect.

[Frederik451]

 

 

And 童鞋 uses 諧音 for a cutesy effect

 

So, is 童鞋 for 同学 also considered 谐音？ i thought it was only when the pronounciation (at least the pinyin, (like waiguoren)) was exactly the same. But maybe i was wrong :-)

 

speaking of finding the word 外国人 offensive, i feel exactly the same but mostly with the word 老外 instead. Don't really know why. It hurts in my ears when someone calls me that. I guess it's a basic instinct to want to belong somewhere, and every time someone calls me a foreigner i feel like i don't belong here. 

 

But yes that's a different post

[陳德聰]

i thought it was only when the pronounciation (at least the pinyin, (like waiguoren)) was exactly the same.

Generally the tone needs to be the same. Edit: But I guess not always, c.f. 油菜花... Damn.

 

The i ~ ü distinction is a lot like the zh ~ z or l ~ n. I don't think you can say that 妹纸 did not come about from 谐音 just because the pinyin is different, or that 辣么大 or even 辣磨大 are not from 谐音.

 

But this particular one came from describing the dude on 爸爸去哪儿, and you can find lots of "explanations" on Baidu that cite foreigners' nonstandard pronunciation of the word 外国人 as a reason it became so popular.

[Demonic_Duck]

Mainly just cuz it's 好玩. Occasionally used in a satirical context, but most of the time it's just a distortion of the word, no particular added connotation. Though I guess it might have something to do with foreigners having bad Chinese.

Don't see anything offensive about it or about "外国人" (unless used by Chinese people to describe non-Chinese people when they're outside of China... Though that's more ignorant than truly offensive).

[889]

米国 is Japanese for America, and there's no reason it can't be a loan word.

 

"Don't see anything offensive about it or about 外国人 (unless used by Chinese people to describe non-Chinese people when they're outside of China... Though that's more ignorant than truly offensive)."

 

It does rankle a bit, though, doesn't it.

 

And the problem with the 12306 captchas has little to do with language -- of course I know perfectly well what 扳鉗 and 鳄梨 mean -- and everything to do with the small and fuzzy pictures. They're now showing up on English websites, where they're just as difficult to use.

[lips]

外国人 is an offensive term?

 

So "foreigner" is also an offensive term then.

[889]

If your selfie caption reads, "Here I am on the Beijing Metro, and I'm surrounded by foreigners!" you're not being offensive but you're certainly saying something not too good about yourself.

[vellocet]

 

But this particular one came from describing the dude on 爸爸去哪儿, and you can find lots of "explanations" on Baidu that cite foreigners' nonstandard pronunciation of the word 外国人 as a reason it became so popular.

 

Ah, this had to be it.  I knew there had to be some kind of story behind it.  

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Are_We_Going,_Dad%3F_(TV_series)

 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUM8x224JrX8ybSuwdu7OYR4OugGNHEXp

 

Can someone cue it up to the point where they use the term?  I'd like to expand my vocabulary and pop culture consciousness. 

[Milkybar_Kid]

A song about a slightly different type of 歪国人: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkc797WQfs0 

[eddyf]

speaking of finding the word 外国人 offensive, i feel exactly the same but mostly with the word 老外 instead. Don't really know why. It hurts in my ears when someone calls me that. I guess it's a basic instinct to want to belong somewhere, and every time someone calls me a foreigner i feel like i don't belong here. 

 

Even worse is when Chinese people here in the US call Americans 老外, like if I'm hanging out with a group of Chinese people here in the US and they're talking about me they'll still call me a 老外, it drives me up the wall... 

[Demonic_Duck]

A song about a slightly different type of 歪国人: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkc797WQfs0

Not even sure whether the blackface is the most offensive part of that video or not...

[Sharon_Too]

I just thought I'd add a list I compiled a while ago.

蓝瘦香菇:难受想哭。
我好方:我好慌。
虾米:什么。
表酱紫:不要这样子。
子豪酱紫:只好这样子。
有木有:有没有。
肿么办:怎么办。
灰常好次:非常好吃。
闹木滴可爱:那么的可爱。
美腻:美丽。
笑屎了:笑死了。
开森:开心。
稀饭:喜欢。
果酱:过奖。
炒鸡:超级。

蟹蟹:谢谢。
一哈:一下。
涅:呢。
帅锅:帅哥。
萌妹纸:萌妹子。
男盆友:男朋友。

Reasons I can think of (also mentioned above):

1. Some Chinese people hardly distinguish the difference between l-n, h-f, s-sh, z-zh, c-ch because it sounds the same in their dialect. Like l-n in 蓝瘦香菇：难受想哭(which got viral all over China because a guy from Guangxi with a heavy l-n accent posted a video online)。Or h-f in 我好方：我好慌 and 稀饭：喜欢。Lastly, c-ch as in 好次：好吃。

2. It's so much cuter, girls are especially fond of them. Some have Taiwan accent origins and sound more flirtatious/acting spoiled（嗲） in Taiwan drama series.

有木有 and 虾米 sound cuter than 有没有 and 什么。

3. It sounds funny and playing with characters like we play with words makes sentences more interesting and creative.

笑屎了 (laugh-shit-passive tense particle) sounds way more fun that 笑死了 (laughing to death).

4. Some were accidently created because of pinyin input typos and they were too lazy to correct it. The pinyin input system also records the frequency of a word used, so if we constantly neglect correcting 果酱 for 过奖, it will often appear as first choice.

5. Sometimes when two characters are read quickly, they compress it in one single character. Like 表：不要，酱：这样 or 造：知道。

6. Some originate from foreign languages. Like 小萝莉 as in Lolita.

7. Then you have those sentences with an English word that makes no sense... (like 厉害了word哥) until you understand that "word" sounds like 我的。

 

It's a bit like in English we have puns, like she's wasting on her waist. Then there are colloquial words which sound more casual/cute/cool.

Gotcha: got you.

Wanna: want to.

Cum'on: come on.

Hubby: husband.

Brexit: Britain Exit.

Dogz: dogs.

Nite: night.

How about Kleenex:clean?

Rollin': rolling.

Check out rap language for instance, gangsta: gangster, mill:million dollar.

What about shoot instead of shit?

And gr8:great?

Imagine Chinese people learning these and trying to get the point

I'm going off subject but it's really fascinating when you just compare and contrast slang between the two languages.

At the end of the day, you realise how languages are truly living and evolving, with people using it in new creative ways to suit new different needs in modern communication. 

[889]

蟹蟹! I've wondered about the word for that simpering petulance so common among young Chinese actresses. (As a side note, it's the only character pronounced dia listed in Pleco.)

 

Thanks as well for clearing the mystery of 表. I'd been puzzled by Publius's post in another thread recently, "表跟偶打朋友牌."

[Publius]

一哈 and 帥鍋 I believe originated from Sichuanese accent.