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From Lisa Nichols:

I noticed on Twitter some HK protest folks last night talking about being a "handfoot", seemingly a newly coined (punned?) term playing with Chinese characters.  I can't seem to figure out much about it, though, but, in trying, came across your posts on Hong Kong protest language [see "Selected readings" below] and thought you might know, or be able to figure it out easily, or at least be interested.

The Cantonese term is sau2zuk1 手足 ("hands and feet; brothers"); in Mandarin it would be pronounced shǒuzú and has the same meanings.

Another term meaning "hands and feet" is shǒujiǎo 手腳; in Cantonese, that is pronounced sau2goek3.  Aside from the literal meaning of "hands and feet", 手腳 also has the figurative meaning of "movement of limbs; action; trick".

Expressions derived from 手腳 are zou6 sau2goek3 做手腳 ("to resort to irregular practices, make secret arrangements; manipulation") and m4 hai6 sau2goek3 / MSM wú xì… shǒujiǎo  唔係…手腳 ("no match for…").

Here's the entry on sau2zuk1 手足 ("hands and feet; brothers") from a glossary of Hong Kong protest slang in Time:

Protestors refer to each other as “hands and feet.” The term conveys the idea of unity: when the hands and feet of a protestor are injured, other protestors feel his or her pain.

See "Hong Kong's Protestors Have Their Own Special Slang. Here's a Glossary of Some Common Terms", Time, by Hillary Leung (9/6/19).

Selected readings

• "Chinese characters written in Greek letters" (7/12/20)
• "GFHG, SDGM" (7/7/20)
• "Better said in Cantonese" (7/4/20)
• "National Security Law eclipses Hong Kong" (6/2/20)
• "Uppercase and lowercase letters in Cantonese Romanization" (5/28/20)
• "Hong Kong protests: 'recover' or 'liberate'" (11/3/19)
• "Loose Romanization for Cantonese" (9/21/19)
• "Women's Romanization for Hong Kong" (9/17/19)
• "Hong Kong protesters' argot" (9/7/19) — includes a long list of relevant posts, including many that are not listed here
• "Hong Kong protesters messing with the characters, part 2" (9/1/19)
• "Hong Kong protesters' argot" (9/7/19)
• "The Cantonese slang term for 'gas mask'" (9/3/19)
• "'Gweilo' as a racially charged term" (9/10/18)
• "Hong Kong protesters messing with the characters" (7/28/19)
• "'Popo' in Hong Kong" (9/28/19)
• "I'm strikin' it" (8/30/19)
• "ChiNAZI" (8/27/19)
• "Cockroach protesters" (8/23/19)
• "Cryptic, allusive messages from Hong Kong's wealthiest tycoon" (8/18/19)
• "Simplified characters in Hong Kong police newsletter" (8/15/19)
• "'Come, comrades, over there!'" (8/9/19)
• "HK protesters' 'sign language'" (8/6/19)
• "Go protest on Causeway Road" (8/5/19)
• "Graffiti correction" (7/26/19)
• "Hong Kong anti-China graffiti" (7/26/19)
• "The enigma of the black hands" (7/25/19)
• "Ich bin ein Hongkonger" (7/18/19)
• "'People's Re-fu*king of Chee-na'" (10/12/16)
• "A Sanskrit tattoo in Hong Kong" (10/4/16)
• "Hong Kong protest puns" (6/20/19) — featuring an ingenious new character ostensibly meaning "Freedom, Hi!", but with a vulgar subtext
• "Hong Kong protest slogan" (6/20/19)
• "Cantonese protest slogans" (10/26/14)
• "'Cantonese' song" (10/24/14)
• "The umbrella in Hong Kong" (10/19/14)
• "Translating the Umbrella Revolution" (10/3/14)
• "The backstory to seven of the most popular protest slogans in Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement" (10/23/14)
• "Hong Kong interlingual contrast" (11/26/14)
• "New Cantonese word" (12/8/14)
• "Thick toast: another new Cantonese pun " (12/11/14)
• "The perils of '7' and '9' in Cantonese " (9/28/16)
• "A new polysyllabic character" (4/3/16)
• "Polysyllabic characters in Chinese writing " (8/2/11)
• "Polysyllabic characters revisited " (6/18/15)
• "'HKers add oil'" (8/3/19)
• "'Add oil'" (9/13/16)
• "'Add oil' is now English" (10/18/18)
• "Comrades, 'hike up your skirts for a hard shag'" (7/23/17)
• "Non-translation" (7/24/16) — in the comments
• "'Go Hong Kong!'" (6/12/19) — ambigram
• "'Add oil,' Kongish!" (9/1/19) — with references to previous posts on this subject
• "Vocabulary of Hong Kong protest slogans and new characters" (9/1/19)

July 31, 2020 @ 11:05 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Proverbs, Slang, Slogans, Topolects

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