{"id":51827,"date":"2021-08-21T04:25:53","date_gmt":"2021-08-21T09:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=51827"},"modified":"2021-08-21T06:47:18","modified_gmt":"2021-08-21T11:47:18","slug":"vulgar-village-vernacular","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=51827","title":{"rendered":"Vulgar village vernacular"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Chinese article<\/a> is about a man who has made a living by painting slogans and ads on village walls for thirty years. Some of the slogans are rather bizarre, as may be seen by looking at the many photographs in the article.<\/p>\r\n

The article says it is such a well-paying job that the man was able to buy 6 apartments in his hometown with his earnings. Painting on walls is one of the major ways to advertise\u00a0or propagate goods and ideas in the countryside.<\/p>\r\n

There are many examples of such signs in the article, but I couldn't understand all of them upon first glance, so I wondered if the country folk would be able to read the signs. I asked a number of my graduate students from China, and they all said, yes, the country folk not only would be able to read them, but would enjoy them and would be motivated to buy the products and services promoted by the signs.<\/p>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

One of my informants opined:<\/p>\r\n

I actually think each of them makes sense. An easier way to be comprehended by the Chinese local peasants. They usually rhyme, in a specific cadence (either penta- or heptasyllabic), or appropriate old, local, vernacular sayings \/ proverbs to provide a setting for the peasant readers\u2019 comprehension. hahaha! but they are very hilarious!!<\/p>\r\n

Some of the advertisements are closely related to the everyday life of the villagers (such as agricultural products and tools), and some other advertisements and political propaganda markedly influence their lives (such as online shopping, mobile payments, and family planning \/ childbearing policies).<\/p>\r\n

Nonetheless, I suspect that there is a strong gender bias in these signs, with many of them being directed at men rather than women.\u00a0 Here's a bit of evidence in support of that impression.<\/p>\r\n

One of the most frequently occurring words on the signs is \"l\u01ceopo \u8001\u5a46\", which can mean \"old lady \/ woman\", but in these signs it usually has the colloquial meaning of \"wife\".\u00a0 This exactly mirrors the usage of \"old lady\" in colloquial English to mean \"wife\", even though she might be young.<\/p>\r\n

In this colloquial setting, if you really want to mean \"old lady\", then you'd say \"l\u01ceop\u00f3r \u8001\u5a46\u513f\" (\"old biddy\", \"old woman\" [with tones of intimacy], though this could still mean \"wife\") or \"l\u01ceop\u00f3po \u8001\u5a46\u5a46\" (\"old woman\", especially as used by children):<\/p>\r\n

    \r\n
  1. (childish<\/a>) granny<\/a>; old<\/a> lady<\/a><\/li>\r\n
  2. (regional, colloquial<\/a>) husband<\/a>'s mother<\/a>; mother-in-law<\/a><\/li>\r\n
  3. (dialectal Gan<\/a>) great-grandmother<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n

    (source<\/a>)<\/p>\r\n

    Another common term for \"wife\" is \"x\u00edf\u00f9 \u5ab3\u5987\" (\"son's wife; daughter-in-law; married woman; young woman\"), also spoken \/ written as \"x\u00edfur \u5ab3\u5987\u513f\", while\u00a0 \"\u00e9r x\u00edf\u00f9 \u513f\u5ab3\u5987\" is often used for\u00a0\u00a0\"daughter-in-law\" — from the mother-in-law's point of view.<\/p>\r\n

    The following are the signs with \"l\u01ceopo \u8001\u5a46\" or \u201cx\u00edf\u00f9 \u5ab3\u5987\u201d in the article:<\/p>\r\n


    H\u01cei'\u011br k\u00f2ngti\u00e1o m\u01cei de du\u00ec, l\u01ceop\u00f3 c\u00e1in\u00e9ng l\u01d2uzhe shu\u00ec<\/p>\r\n

    \u6d77\u5c14\u7a7a\u8c03\u4e70\u7684\u5bf9\uff0c\u8001\u5a46\u624d\u80fd\u6402\u7740\u7761<\/p>\r\n

    Once you make the right decision to buy a Haier air conditioner, you can hug your wife to sleep.<\/p>\r\n


    Y\u00f2ng sh\u01d2uj\u012b xu\u01cen P\u00ednggu\u01d2 iPhone, l\u01ceop\u00f3 ji\u0101r\u00e9n b\u00e8i'er y\u01d2u mi\u00e0nzi<\/p>\r\n

    \u7528\u624b\u673a\u9009\u82f9\u679ciPhone\uff0c \u8001\u5a46\u5bb6\u4eba\u500d\u513f\u6709\u9762\u5b50<\/p>\r\n

    If you choose Apple iPhone as your cell, your wife and family will gain a lot of face (be greatly honored).<\/p>\r\n


    D\u0101ng \u00c9le me w\u00e0im\u00e0i q\u00edsh\u01d2u, l\u01ceop\u00f3 f\u00e1ngzi z\u00e0i y\u011b b\u00f9 ch\u00f3u<\/p>\r\n

    \u5f53\u997f\u4e86\u4e48\u5916\u5356\u9a91\u624b\uff0c\u8001\u5a46\u623f\u5b50\u518d\u4e5f\u4e0d\u6101<\/p>\r\n

    If you work as a takeout delivery rider for Ele.me<\/a>, you will no longer worry about wife and house (getting married and buying a house).<\/p>\r\n


    B\u00ecgu\u00ecyu\u00e1n f\u00e1ng m\u01cei de z\u01ceo, x\u00edf\u00f9 q\u01d4 d\u00e9 b\u01d0 r\u00e9n h\u01ceo<\/p>\r\n

    \u78a7\u6842\u56ed\u623f\u4e70\u7684\u65e9\uff0c\u5ab3\u5987\u5a36\u5f97\u6bd4\u4eba\u597d<\/p>\r\n

    If you make an early decision on buying an apartment in Biguiyuan, you will marry a better wife.<\/p>\r\n


    Hu\u0101ji\u0101o zh\u00edb\u00f2 w\u00e1n de h\u01ceo, x\u00edf\u00f9 q\u01d4 d\u00e9 b\u01d0 r\u00e9n z\u01ceo<\/p>\r\n

    \u82b1\u6912\u76f4\u64ad\u73a9\u7684\u597d\uff0c\u5ab3\u5987\u5a36\u5f97\u6bd4\u4eba\u65e9<\/p>\r\n

    If you play Huajiao live streaming well, you can marry a wife earlier than others.<\/p>\r\n

    I suppose getting married is the top priority for country lads and their parents, so\u00a0\"l\u01ceopo \u8001\u5a46\" or \u201cx\u00edf\u00f9 \u5ab3\u5987\u201d often appear on the signs to galvanize them to \u00a0believe in the ads.<\/p>\r\n

    A diverse assortment of observations from my informants:<\/p>\r\n

    1.<\/p>\r\n

    I remember that whenever I traveled in Chinese rural areas, especially several years ago when I was a kid, I could always see those handwritten signs painted on the sidewalls of buildings. I think those who painted them were employed to do so as their jobs, and the contents they wrote were assigned by the local governments or\u00a0businesses. Some were commercial\u00a0advertising, including\u00a0agricultural machinery,\u00a0fertilizer, pesticides, or network operators and banks, among others; and some were slogans used for propaganda purposes, on for example China's Family Planning policy \u00a0(\"One Child Policy\" in previous years, and now the \"Three-child Policy\" ), and now even on COVID (e.g., mask mandates, travel restrictions, social gathering limits, etc.).<\/p>\r\n

    2.<\/p>\r\n

    This article mainly focuses on those handwritten commercial advertisements in Chinese rural areas, and how the changing contents reflect the changing situation of Chinese rural economics. Many of these signs seem ridiculous, nonsensical, and sometimes even vulgar, which manifests the limited education level and underdevelopment in rural China to some extent.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

    3.<\/p>\r\n

    This kind of sign often reminds me of the\u00a0wall-mounted Big-character Posters<\/a> during the Cultural Revolution<\/a> and socialist propaganda.<\/p>\r\n

    If one did a study of such signs in the past 30 or 40 years, he might have a clearer vision of what has changed or remained unchanged in the countryside of China.<\/p>\r\n

     <\/p>\r\n

    Selected readings<\/strong><\/p>\r\n