Mandarin Chinese profanity

Profanity in Mandarin Chinese most commonly involves sexual references and scorn of the target's ancestors, especially their mother. Other Mandarin insults accuse people of not being human. Compared to English, scatological and blasphemous references are less often used.

In a 1968 academic study of Chinese pejorative words, more than a third of the 325-term corpus of abusive expressions compare the insulted person with an animal, with the worst curses being "animal" generally, "pig, dog, animal", or "animal in dress", which deny the person of human dignity.^[1] The expressions contain metaphorical references to the following domesticated animals: dogs, cows, and chickens (12 or 11 terms each), (8 times), horse (4), cat (3), and duck (2), and one each to sheep, donkey and camel.^[2] A variety of wild animals are used in these pejorative terms, and the most common are monkey (7 times) and tiger (5 times), symbolizing ugliness and power respectively.^[3]

Certain terms are used for expressing contempt or strong disapproval:

• qiáo bù qǐ (瞧不起) – To look down upon or to hold in contempt.^[4]
• cè nà (册那) – Shanghainese for "fuck", similar in usage to cào (肏) albeit less strong.^[5]
• cào nǐ mā (肏你妈) – "Fuck your mother".^[6] May also be spelled with the synonymous homophone character cào (操).
• shǎ bī (傻逼) – "Stupid cunt".^[7]
• ā gòng zǐ (阿共仔; 'Commie guy') – A derogatory slang term used by Taiwanese against mainland Chinese, which refers to communism as an ad hominem.^[8]

• èr guǐ zǐ (二鬼子; 'WWII devils')^[9] – (See Riben guizi) During World War II, 二鬼子 referred to traitors among the Han Chinese hanjian and Koreans in the Imperial Japanese Army, as the Japanese were known as "鬼子" (devils) for massacring innocent children and women. Today, 二鬼子 is used to describe ethnic Koreans who had been absorbed into Japan and joined the Japanese Imperial Army. It is rarely used as a slur in recent times.
• xiǎo rì běn (小日本; 'Jap') – Another ethnic slur targeting Japanese people, especially Japanese invaders, which was used during and after the Second Sino-Japanese War. It was used to mock the invaders' physically short stature compared to Chinese people, and Japan's smaller area size compared to China. However, ordinary Japanese people may not be greatly offended by the term, rendering the slur less offending than intended.^[10]
• Huanna (番仔; hoan-á) – a Hokkien term in literally meaning "foreigner" or "non-Chinese". Used by most Overseas Chinese to refer generally to indigenous Southeast Asians and Taiwanese Aborigines. In the Philippines, this term is used by Chinese Filipinos towards indigenous Filipinos.^[11] In Malaysia, this term is instead used by Chinese Malaysians towards ethnic Malays.
• Yuenán houzǐ (越南猴子; 'Vietnamese monkeys') – A term used by the Han Chinese to derogatorily refer towards Vietnamese by associating them as being uncivilized, barbaric, dirty, primitive, and backward people. This term also alludes to the historical region of Nam Viet (南越), a province that was ruled by the Han dynasty during the First Chinese domination of Vietnam; when mixed with the word "southern barbarian" (南蠻) is also used as an ethnic slur towards the Vietnamese by the Han Chinese.^[12]

Other vulgar terms include:

• wǒ cāo (我操) – "Fuck!" Used as an interjection.
• mā de (妈的) – "Damn it!"^[7]
• diǎo sī (屌丝) – literally "penis hair", used to refer to a young male of mediocre appearance and social standing, often in an ironic and self depreciating manner.^[13]