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Thirty-five or so years ago, Allyn Rickett (1921-2020), my old colleague at Penn, referred to a certain person as "pópomāmā 婆婆媽媽" ("mawkishly maudlin" [my translation of Rickett's Mandarin]; "old-lady-like").  This is such an unusual expression, and it so perfectly characterized the individual in question, that it's worth writing a post on it.

In the years around the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Rickett ("Rick") was in China doing research for his doctoral dissertation on the Guǎn Zǐ 管子 (Master Guan), a large and important politicophilosophical text reflecting the thought and practice of the Spring and Autumn period (c. 770-c. 481 BC), though the received version was not edited until circa 26 BC.  Rickett was accused of spying for the US Office of Naval Intelligence and imprisoned by the PRC government.  There he underwent four years of "struggle sessions".  Call them what you will, he had ample opportunity to become familiar with such colloquial terms as "pópomāmā 婆婆媽媽".

I should also note that Rickett, who was a student of the distinguished Sinologist, Derk Bodde (1909-2003), was an outstanding scholar in his own right, and his densely annotated translation of the Guan Zi is a monumental achievement, one that he worked on for most of his professional life.

Now, back to pópomāmā 婆婆媽媽.  First, let's break the four-syllable term down into its constituent monosyllables:

pó 婆

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *pʷa-n ~ *bʷa-n (“grandmother”). Cognate with Burmese ဘွား (bhwa:, “grandmother”).

1. old woman
2. grandmother
3. mother-in-law (of a woman); husband's mother
4. woman in a particular profession

   媒婆  ―  méipó  ―  female matchmaker

5. pejorative suffix for a woman

   肥婆  ―  féipó  ―  fat woman

6. (ACG, neologism) Short for 老婆 (lǎopo, “wife”)

In transcriptions of Buddhist terms, 婆 (MC ba) is often used to transcribe Sanskrit ब (ba), भ (bha) and व (va), e.g. 濕婆 / 湿婆 (Shīpó, “Shiva”).

(Wiktionary)

 

mā 媽

Colloquial form of 母 (OC *mɯʔ, “mother”), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *mow (“woman, female”).

1. mom; mum: an affectionate term for a mother

   我的媽呀！／我的妈呀！  ―  Wǒ de mā ya!  ―  Oh my God! [Literally: Oh my Mom!]

2. (usually with qualifier) other older female relatives or house–servants
3. (religion) "The Mother", an epithet of the Fujianese sea goddess Mazu (媽祖／妈祖).
4. (obsolete, hapax legomenon) mare; female horse

(Wiktionary)

 

pópo 婆婆

1. (chiefly Mandarin, Jin) mother-in-law (husband's mother)
2. (Cantonese, dialectal Mandarin, dialectal Hakka, dialectal Jin, dialectal Wu, Taining Gan, Jianyang Northern Min, Shaowu Min) maternal grandmother
3. (Gan, dialectal Mandarin, dialectal Xiang, dialectal Wu) paternal grandmother
4. (dialectal) old woman
5. (figurative, Mainland China) higher authorities; superior; leader

(Wiktionary)

 

māma / mǎmá 媽媽

1. (informal) mum (mom); mama

   遵守媽媽的叮嚀／遵守妈妈的叮咛  ―  zūnshǒu māma de dīngníng  ―  to follow mum's advice

   媽媽的味道／妈妈的味道  ―  māma de wèidào  ―  the taste of mum's cooking

   媽媽總是向著妹妹。

   妈妈总是向着妹妹。

   Māma zǒngshì xiàngzhe mèimei. [Pinyin]

   Mum always favours my younger sister.

   你這麼淘氣，媽媽不擔心才怪！你这么淘气，妈妈不担心才怪！

   Nǐ zhème táoqì, māma bù dānxīn cáiguài! [Pinyin]

   You are such a naughty kid. It'd be surprising if your mum were not worried.

   我一輩子都被媽媽監視。

   我一辈子都被妈妈监视
   

   Wǒ yībèizi dōu bèi māma jiānshì. [Pinyin]

   Mum has kept tabs on me all my life.

2. (dialectal, colloquial) breast
3. (ACG, figurative) character designer (female)

(Wiktionary)

 

Putting all four syllables back together, we get "pópomāmā 婆婆媽媽", which means "overly careful (like an old woman); womanishly garrulous; irresolute", and so forth.

Here's an interesting quotation illustrating its usage:

• • 但這孩子卻也有可敬的地方：他的從容，他的沉默，他的獨斷獨行，他的一去不回頭，都是力的表現，都是強者適者的表現。決不婆婆媽媽的，決不粘粘搭搭的，一針見血，一刀兩斷，這正是白種人之所以為白種人。[MSC, trad.]但这孩子却也有可敬的地方：他的从容，他的沉默，他的独断独行，他的一去不回头，都是力的表现，都是强者适者的表现。决不婆婆妈妈的，决不粘粘搭搭的，一针见血，一刀两断，这正是白种人之所以为白种人。

    From: 朱自清 (Zhu Ziqing), 《白種人——上帝的驕子》[Báizhǒng rén——shàngdì de jiāozǐ]

    Dàn zhè háizi què yě yǒu kějìng de dìfang: tā de cóngróng, tā de chénmò, tā de dúduàndúxíng, tā de yī qù bù huítóu, dōu shì lì de biǎoxiàn, dōu shì qiángzhě shìzhě de biǎoxiàn. Juébù pópomāma de, juébù niánniándādā de, yīzhēnjiànxiě, yīdāoliǎngduàn, zhè zhèngshì báizhǒngrén zhī suǒ yǐ wéi báizhǒngrén. [Pinyin]

    But there was something about the child that could be respected. His leisurely way, his reticence, his arbitrariness, his way of walking ahead without looking back. These were manifestations of his power, the power of the strongest, of the fittest. The child was, by no means, overly careful, or irresolute. The child could hit the nail on the head and make a clean break. The child was a quintessential Caucasian.

• sentimental; maudlin; fainthearted

(Wiktionary)

 

The author of these sentences was Zhū Zìqīng 朱自清 (1898-1948), a famous poet and essayist of the Republican period.

Key terms, as rendered by online interpreters:

• White people—God’s favorite (GT), 
  
• White people — God's pride (Baidu)
• Caucasians — the proud sons of God (MS Bing)
• The white man — the pride of God (DeepL), plus three alternatives that vary only slightly

Zhu Ziqing had his finger on the pulse of the lingua franca of China during the first half of the 20th century (particularly the second quarter of that century).  When I began studying Mandarin in 1967, it was to that period that I looked for a model on which to base my own emerging idiolect.  The reason for this is that I thought it was the most vibrant vernacular of the century, certainly more lively and creative than the period in which I grew up and learned Mandarin.

Moreover, I had a strong antipathy to the characters, whether traditional or simplified, the former for being divorced from spoken language and the latter for being neither fish nor fowl.  So I turned to romanized missionary writings where I could learn delightful terms like shabulengdengde ("foolish; daffy") and pangdudu ("chubby").  When I was forced by my Mandarin teachers to learn characters, I preferred to do it through the literature of writers like Zhu Ziqing and Lao She (1899-1966), who stretched sinographic writing as close to alphabetic writing as it could go.  That's why I loved words like pópomāmā 婆婆媽媽 ("old-lady-like; anile") and niánniándādā 黏黏搭搭 ("sticky; irresolute; kleisty").

 

Selected readings

• "Japanese (and Chinese) Onomatopoeia" (7/21/08)
• "Vulgar village vernacular" (8/21/21)

 

April 14, 2025 @ 12:00 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Alphabets, Colloquial, Onomatopoeia, Romanization, Vernacular, Writing

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