Comments on: Firefly – Entertaining Chinese Lessons

By: Moving Beyond CCTV9 | A China Blog on Suzhou Expat Life | The Humanaught

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 08:03:08 +0000

[...] There’s just nothing holding you back. TV binging can be a bit painful too, as it causes you to get overly wrapped up in the plot – as when there’s no week-long lag-time, you are essentially watching one LONG movie. This is particularly a pain when we hit the end of a season just as the new season’s starting in the US, forcing us to wait a whole year before it’s on DVD in its entirety (Prison Break) – or when you find a show you just love only to discover they only made (and will ever make) one season (Firefly). [...]

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 00:19:39 +0000

Hey JP – if you were saying “你妈的/nǐ mā de” you’d be right. This means “your mom’s…” which can imply any of a number of things about the persons mother (fucking her, her naughty bits, just referring to her negatively in general)… however, 他妈的/tāmāde is a bit different. Only slightly, but that’s all that matters really.

Here are a couple sample statements using it:

Car swerves in front of you and cuts you off:
“他妈的!”
Boss tells you you’re fired:
“他妈的…”
Boss tells you you’re fired from a job you hate and want to leave:
“没他妈的问题/méi tāmāde wèntí” – basically meaning, “no fucking problem.”

Though you may be right in that it’s a bit more vulgar than ‘ah crap’ – it’s often used, and in casual conversation with friends, quite common.

By: JP

JP — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 18:45:05 +0000

As far as I know (what I picked up while I was growing up in south-east asia), ta1 ma1 de4 does not mean “ah crap”. Its pretty close to the english expression “your mom”, but in this case, it refers obliquely to “your mom’s genitals”.

It’s a lot more vulgar than “ah crap”.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 04:09:04 +0000

Yeah, I guess so. Of course, we “Yanks” don’t say either of those other things either. Although, we do say (maybe not me, but some people), “That’s the sh*t” meaning something that’s good.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 23:24:27 +0000

@Stu: Yeah… I know

As for NiuB … I just have no idea. Why do we say “that’s the cat’s ass” or “that’s the dog’s bollocks”… apparently each culture seems to focus on a different animal’s naughty bits for greatness.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 19:52:38 +0000

I was one of those people who actually watched Firefly when it was on TV. I love Joss Whedon. I highly recommend Buffy the Vampire Slayer ("Mal" plays a villain in the Season 7) as well as Angel ("Zoe" plays a villain in Season 4). Anyway, I always loved how they used a lot of Chinese phrases in that show. It's kind of a nod to the fact that that Chinese, as well as English, is a dominant language that will no doubt be around for a long time. The movie Blade Runner kind of does the same thing (with the whole language thing, I mean). Ryan, you said you were almost finished with "the first series". You do know that there's no second series (or season as we say in the U.S.), don't you? Also, why is "real cow vagina" awesome?

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 14:41:22 +0000

@Lorcan/Meg: Yeah – it rocks. We’re about a disc away from finishing the first series. Wow, did that in under a week.

@Steve: I’ve heard that they’re closed at the moment. I wouldn’t sweat it – it happens every couple of months; usually tied in to WTO officials visiting Beijing.

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 12:38:08 +0000

Went looking for this today. It looks like Dalian finally decided to crack down on all of the DVD pirates, and there wasn’t any to be found.

By: Meg

Meg — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 06:06:13 +0000

I LOVE Firefly! I’ve actually been looking for them on DVD here… I found the movie though.

By: Lorcan OC

Lorcan OC — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 10:46:00 +0000

Firefly is amazing ^___^

Its basically the continued adventures of Han Solo!