Strawberry - A Shanghai Girl in America Ch. 02

Chinese words used (in order of use)

Gao se = "crap"

Xiǎo bī = "Little pussy"

Jù dà = huge / immense / very large, in this context, describing Pete's cock.

Shuài dāi le = very good looking, a hunk of a guy

Àomàn= "snooty" - in this story's context, Hong Kong girls - smart, savvy, business minded, loyal and determined; yet, also insecure, possessive, look down on all other chinese and are, relatively, how can I say...childishly greedy, self-centered and always looking for the guy with status and whose money they can spend. HK girls do not have the best reputation outside of Hong Kong. "Your daughter marry a Hong Kong man, celebrate. Your son marry a Hong Kong girl, mourn" is, for example, a South Korean saying.

Guǎngdōnghuà = cantonese

Xiùsèkěcān - "eye candy" - much the same in mandarin as in English as far as meaning goes

Guanxi - "Connections" - guanxi emphasizes implicit mutual obligations, reciprocity, and trust, which are the foundations of guanxi and guanxi networks. Guanxi also has a major influence on the management of businesses based in China, and businesses owned by overseas Chinese. China runs on guanxi. It's customary for Chinese people to cultivate an intricate web of guanxi relationships, which may expand in a huge number of directions, and includes lifelong relationships. Staying in contact with members of your network is not necessary to bind reciprocal obligations. Reciprocal favors are the key factor to maintaining one's guanxiweb, while failure to reciprocate is considered an unforgivable offense (that is, the more one asks of someone, the more one owes them). So if a chinese person ever does you a favor - remember it.

Chī bīng qílín - "Suck cock" - lit. "eat icecream"

Ná qù - "Take it"

Tūn xià zhè yīqiè - "Swallow it all"

Tian wo dan - "Lick my balls"

Di diao - "big dick/cock"

Zhaogu nianqingren - "Sugar Daddy"

Gweilo - Chinese slang for white people, lit. "ghost man", because Chinese ghosts are white

Rù xiāng suí sú - old Chinese saying meaning "when entering a village, follow their customs" (i.e. "When in Rome, do as the Romans")

Tài dí xióng - "teddy bear"

Gwai poh - White women, in Chinese (Cantonese, but it's an expression used across China now) lit. "Ghost women"

Wo de ma - "Mother of God"

Daxiang baozhashi de laduzi! - "explosive diarrhea of an elephant" - you gotta love Chinese. So many truly great expressions. You have to admit, this is so much more expressive than a simple "oh shit". So much bigger in scope!

And a note from Chloe: I so hope you enjoyed "Strawberry Loses Face". She's my favorite character after Hayley. So very Chinese. So cute. So ditzy. Such a Chinese world view. So sad sometimes, but so happy most of the time. And always seeing the world through rose-tinted eyeglasses and from a totally sino-centric perspective. Anyhow, I have more Strawberry stories planned for delivery - "Strawberry's Icecream Sundae" is coming up, followed by "Strawberry under the Mistletoe". And at some stage I'm going to write a story on Strawberry and Longwei.