Language Log

Sinitic exclamations in English speech

June 6, 2023 @ 12:45 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Censorship, Code switching, Multilingualism

Listen to Malaysian comedian Nigel Ng (aka "Uncle Roger"), who has had his Weibo and bilibili social media accounts banned due to "violation of relevant regulations":

The ban comes one day after Ng uploaded this clip to various social media platforms. pic.twitter.com/8Wwf2aTrfZ
— Aaron Busch (@tripperhead) May 19, 2023

Under the subject line "Uncle Roger predicts his own cancelling on Weibo: 'Taiwan not a country' (sarcastically)", AntC sent me the following message:

Another example of how thin-skinned is CCP.

Uncle Roger (comedy persona of Nigel Ng, if you don't know him) is a Malaysian-born UK comedian. I love his use of Hokkien / Cantonese / Hakka interjections. Haiyaa.

Here's a newspaper article about the incident:

Uncle Roger canceled in China after joking about Taiwan, Xi Jinping

Malaysian-born comedian Nigel Ng's Weibo, Bilibili suspended after satirical clip shared online

By Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News (5/21/23)

AntC continues:

He posted a short clip of a stand-up routine, featuring his usual heavy satire. He even predicted it'd get censored. He was right. See the tweet with which this post begins.

Oh, by the way, during the pandemic lockdowns, when Uncle Roger couldn't do stand-up, he took to commenting on British TV cookery programs — especially those attempting Asian dishes. Noting our recent LLog thread: he has several on YouTube on crimes against Pho. Also Jamie Oliver's 'The worst Thai Red curry'. [VHM: I've seen some of these videos; they are hilarious.]

Some of my favorite foreignisms are exclamations and interjections: oy (Yiddish), wah (Cantonese), bāphre bāph (Nepali), lah (Singlish). You don't have to worry about their semantic content or grammatical usage. All you have to do with them is emote.

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