Yangjingbang Yingyu
Fun article:
Shanghai Daily http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2008/200804/20080429/article_357528.htm
ONE of the intangible artifacts of old Shanghai is very much alive. It's yangjingbang English, the city's first, snappy business lingo. You could use it to wrap up a deal, talk to the ayi or ask for a kai si - kiss, writes Pan Xiaoyi.
Ha pi" is a popular word among young people today. Pronounced in Shanghai dialect, it sounds like "happy" - it also means happy - and is a common example of fashionable pidgin English. It's called yangjingbang English.
Yangjingbang English originated in the Yangjingbang area of old Shanghai, now Yan'an Road E. very close to the Bund. As a small tributary of the Huangpu River, Yangjingbang was insignificant. However, once it became the boundary between the bustling French Concession and British Concession in 1848, it became a household word.
That's because of the mixture of English and Chinese for fast, snappy, short-hand communication that became known as yangjingbang English. Some was imported from Canton, with Indian and Portuguese influences. Shanghainese absorbed it and developed their own language.
Today yangjingbang - the city's original business English - still turns up in daily life. The term can also refer to popular new words.
Terms include pai si (pass), ba shi (bus), shui men ting (cement), and re shui ting (steam).
Huang Aiguo, born in the 1950s, grew up near Yangjingbang area and recalls his father speaking yangjingbang English in Shanghai dialect. "He would say someone has a beautiful fan si (face) or she is such a mo deng (modern) lady."
Yangjingbang flowed west from the Bund toward Zhoujin (now Xizang Road S.). It was called Yangjingbang because it flowed past the Yangjing Harbor. Many cargo ships and ferries from the suburbs anchored at Sanyangjing Bridge. Ships docked with cargoes from India, Japan, Europe and the United States; the freight was carried inland. Freight from south of the Yangtze River was shipped outward.
Business boomed. Foreign companies poured in: banks, bourses, trading companies, insurance companies, retailers of all kinds. Chinese companies prospered as well.
Chinese middlemen hustled along the riverbank and made business possible between Chinese and Westerners who spoke no Chinese. Compradors were the Chinese managers of big mercantile establishments.
Office clerks in foreign companies often talked a lot with brokers and suppliers in pidgin English. It combined English and Chinese elements to communicate between English and Chinese speakers.
Huang reminisces about his father who worked for Sincere & Co Ltd, one of the four famous department stores at that time.
"When my father played with us, he would say, 'qing nong chi lan hu mian.' Lan hu mian literally means over-cooked noodles. Pronounced in Shanghainese, it sounds like 'love me.' So qing nong chi lan hu mian means 'Please love me.'
"Sometimes neighbors might say 'I saw them da kai si (kiss)' when gossiping about lovers," he continues.
Pidgin English originated in Guangzhou (then Canton), the first Treaty Port and major trading center. At first foreign business men showed little interest in learning Chinese, and the Chinese government punished those who taught Chinese to foreigners.
Thus pidgin (the Cantonese pronunciation of "business") came into being, effective business English that didn't sweat the grammar or pronunciation.
After Shanghai was opened as one of five "Treaty Ports," foreign businessmen swarmed in. Pidgin English developed into yangjingbang English, the coin of the commercial realm.
English speakers also used yangjingbang English with servants at home, waiters in hotels and restaurants, coolies (also yangjingbang English, from Chinese ku li meaning laborer) pulling rickshaws, and others. Children were cared for by Chinese amahs (ayi).
Local famed author Chen Danyan writes of yangjingbang English in her latest book (in Chinese), "Images and Legends of the Shanghai Bund."
There was a joke that a chef told his mistress in yangjingbang English, "Twenty dollar one month, eat you, sleep you." Actually he meant his employer should pay him US$20 a month and provide food and lodging.
Other interesting examples:
An expat returned home one day to find broken drinking glasses and asked his servant. "Inside zhi-zhi-zhi, outside miao-miao-miao, glass guang-lang-dang," the man said. It turned out that the cat tried to catch the darting mouse and crashed into the glassware.
One day, the boss of a foreign firm asked his driver to buy a film ticket. The man returned empty-handed, saying: "People mountain people sea, today no see, tomorrow see, tomorrow see, same see." It actually meant there was a huge crowd of people and tickets were sold out until the next day.
One foreigner took silk to a tailor and "localized" his English: "My have got one piece plenty handsome silk; my want you make one nice evening dress." (Simply: "I have a very nice piece of silk and want you to make a nice evening dress.")
Yangjingbang English is evolving as white collars are keen to coin their own words. For example, jia bei qing nong (deep feelings) refers to cappucino. If pronounced in Shanghai dialect, it sounds like "cappucino."
Similarly, ai shi jia bei qing nong (love signifies deep feelings), means iced cappucino. Some are both humorous and vivid such as huo shi bi dao (bad things happen), for hospital in Shanghai dialect.
Chinglish translated directly from Shanghai dialect is also very popular among young people. For instance, "old three and old four" (lao san lao si), meaning being arrogant and "no three no four" (bu san bu si), meaning nonsense.
Though some terms are still widely used, not many people know the origins of yangjingbang English. The river itself has disappeared. When the river became too polluted, authorities in the French and British concessions decided to fill it in and pave over the waterway.
In 1915, the new road was named Avenue Eduard VII after the British monarch. Big buildings went up. In swarmed more business. Now, Yan'an Road is still the main downtown east-west road.
"I can still hear white collars walking out of their offices on Yan'an Road speaking yangjingbang English and mixing Chinese with English," Huang says.
The old lingo lingers
Ang san (on sale)
Originally out-dated or low-quality goods, which deceived customers and led them to buy "bargains" that were "on sale." It came to mean an outwardly good person who actually is mean-spirited.
Sometimes it refers to a difficult situation in which one tells lies to make it more acceptable to others.
Hun qiang shi (take a chance)
It is sometimes said that someone takes a chance, or is a risk-taker in doing careless work or being lazy and relying on others to do the job.
Sha gen (shocking)
Similar to "extremely." Describes something that is very good, so good that it is startling.
Describing price, it indicates something extremely low.
Luo song tang (Russian soup, borscht)
Old Shanghainese called Russians luo song. After the October Revolution in 1917, many Russians fled to Shanghai.
They brought many products including luosong tang, luosong mianbao (Russian bread), luosong mao (Russian hat), among others.
| Aiyah! The savvy lingo of old Shanghai |
| By Pan Xiaoyi 2008-4-29 |
ONE of the intangible artifacts of old Shanghai is very much alive. It's yangjingbang English, the city's first, snappy business lingo. You could use it to wrap up a deal, talk to the ayi or ask for a kai si - kiss, writes Pan Xiaoyi.
Ha pi" is a popular word among young people today. Pronounced in Shanghai dialect, it sounds like "happy" - it also means happy - and is a common example of fashionable pidgin English. It's called yangjingbang English.
Yangjingbang English originated in the Yangjingbang area of old Shanghai, now Yan'an Road E. very close to the Bund. As a small tributary of the Huangpu River, Yangjingbang was insignificant. However, once it became the boundary between the bustling French Concession and British Concession in 1848, it became a household word.
That's because of the mixture of English and Chinese for fast, snappy, short-hand communication that became known as yangjingbang English. Some was imported from Canton, with Indian and Portuguese influences. Shanghainese absorbed it and developed their own language.
Today yangjingbang - the city's original business English - still turns up in daily life. The term can also refer to popular new words.
Terms include pai si (pass), ba shi (bus), shui men ting (cement), and re shui ting (steam).
Huang Aiguo, born in the 1950s, grew up near Yangjingbang area and recalls his father speaking yangjingbang English in Shanghai dialect. "He would say someone has a beautiful fan si (face) or she is such a mo deng (modern) lady."
Yangjingbang flowed west from the Bund toward Zhoujin (now Xizang Road S.). It was called Yangjingbang because it flowed past the Yangjing Harbor. Many cargo ships and ferries from the suburbs anchored at Sanyangjing Bridge. Ships docked with cargoes from India, Japan, Europe and the United States; the freight was carried inland. Freight from south of the Yangtze River was shipped outward.
Business boomed. Foreign companies poured in: banks, bourses, trading companies, insurance companies, retailers of all kinds. Chinese companies prospered as well.
Chinese middlemen hustled along the riverbank and made business possible between Chinese and Westerners who spoke no Chinese. Compradors were the Chinese managers of big mercantile establishments.
Office clerks in foreign companies often talked a lot with brokers and suppliers in pidgin English. It combined English and Chinese elements to communicate between English and Chinese speakers.
Huang reminisces about his father who worked for Sincere & Co Ltd, one of the four famous department stores at that time.
"When my father played with us, he would say, 'qing nong chi lan hu mian.' Lan hu mian literally means over-cooked noodles. Pronounced in Shanghainese, it sounds like 'love me.' So qing nong chi lan hu mian means 'Please love me.'
"Sometimes neighbors might say 'I saw them da kai si (kiss)' when gossiping about lovers," he continues.
Pidgin English originated in Guangzhou (then Canton), the first Treaty Port and major trading center. At first foreign business men showed little interest in learning Chinese, and the Chinese government punished those who taught Chinese to foreigners.
Thus pidgin (the Cantonese pronunciation of "business") came into being, effective business English that didn't sweat the grammar or pronunciation.
After Shanghai was opened as one of five "Treaty Ports," foreign businessmen swarmed in. Pidgin English developed into yangjingbang English, the coin of the commercial realm.
English speakers also used yangjingbang English with servants at home, waiters in hotels and restaurants, coolies (also yangjingbang English, from Chinese ku li meaning laborer) pulling rickshaws, and others. Children were cared for by Chinese amahs (ayi).
Local famed author Chen Danyan writes of yangjingbang English in her latest book (in Chinese), "Images and Legends of the Shanghai Bund."
There was a joke that a chef told his mistress in yangjingbang English, "Twenty dollar one month, eat you, sleep you." Actually he meant his employer should pay him US$20 a month and provide food and lodging.
Other interesting examples:
An expat returned home one day to find broken drinking glasses and asked his servant. "Inside zhi-zhi-zhi, outside miao-miao-miao, glass guang-lang-dang," the man said. It turned out that the cat tried to catch the darting mouse and crashed into the glassware.
One day, the boss of a foreign firm asked his driver to buy a film ticket. The man returned empty-handed, saying: "People mountain people sea, today no see, tomorrow see, tomorrow see, same see." It actually meant there was a huge crowd of people and tickets were sold out until the next day.
One foreigner took silk to a tailor and "localized" his English: "My have got one piece plenty handsome silk; my want you make one nice evening dress." (Simply: "I have a very nice piece of silk and want you to make a nice evening dress.")
Yangjingbang English is evolving as white collars are keen to coin their own words. For example, jia bei qing nong (deep feelings) refers to cappucino. If pronounced in Shanghai dialect, it sounds like "cappucino."
Similarly, ai shi jia bei qing nong (love signifies deep feelings), means iced cappucino. Some are both humorous and vivid such as huo shi bi dao (bad things happen), for hospital in Shanghai dialect.
Chinglish translated directly from Shanghai dialect is also very popular among young people. For instance, "old three and old four" (lao san lao si), meaning being arrogant and "no three no four" (bu san bu si), meaning nonsense.
Though some terms are still widely used, not many people know the origins of yangjingbang English. The river itself has disappeared. When the river became too polluted, authorities in the French and British concessions decided to fill it in and pave over the waterway.
In 1915, the new road was named Avenue Eduard VII after the British monarch. Big buildings went up. In swarmed more business. Now, Yan'an Road is still the main downtown east-west road.
"I can still hear white collars walking out of their offices on Yan'an Road speaking yangjingbang English and mixing Chinese with English," Huang says.
The old lingo lingers
Ang san (on sale)
Originally out-dated or low-quality goods, which deceived customers and led them to buy "bargains" that were "on sale." It came to mean an outwardly good person who actually is mean-spirited.
Sometimes it refers to a difficult situation in which one tells lies to make it more acceptable to others.
Hun qiang shi (take a chance)
It is sometimes said that someone takes a chance, or is a risk-taker in doing careless work or being lazy and relying on others to do the job.
Sha gen (shocking)
Similar to "extremely." Describes something that is very good, so good that it is startling.
Describing price, it indicates something extremely low.
Luo song tang (Russian soup, borscht)
Old Shanghainese called Russians luo song. After the October Revolution in 1917, many Russians fled to Shanghai.
They brought many products including luosong tang, luosong mianbao (Russian bread), luosong mao (Russian hat), among others.
Speaking of Chen Danyan, I just bought an early book of hers, Slow Boat to China pt 1, and its on my list to read after a Wang Xiaobo (northerner, uck) novel that I'm reading with a friend. (Comment this)