In Chinese, “bi” (pronounced “bee”) is the slang word for “vagina,” Jeremy tells us in a post noting the sad fact that the Vagina Monologues in not to be, having been cancelled in both Shanghai and Beijing.
Jeremy is quite hard on the NY Times reporter Joseph Kahn who wrote:
“The challenge to social norms made the play a sensation in the United States. But in China, where the word vagina carries even greater shock value and is rarely spoken in public, “The Vagina Monologues” roiled the wrong people — the country’s censors.”
To this Jeremy replies:
Rarely spoken in public? What planet is Mr Kahn reporting from? I hear the slang word for vagina – bi – maybe three or four times a day in Beijing. The clinical term – yindao – is not perhaps something you would say at your grandmother’s dinner table, but it is certainly has no greater shock value than the word ‘vagina’ does in English speaking countries
I have no doubt that Jeremy is correct. But this is apparently a widely held misunderstanding. Just a few days earlier a reporter for the Sunday Herald wrote:
Notwithstanding the popularity of pirated DVD copies of Western TV hits like Sex And The City, “vagina” tends to be spoken only within hospitals and on the football terraces amongst fans unhappy with their team’s performance.
My guess is that these reporters got their impression from colleagues or other sources who have been away from China for the past few years, and are unaware of the extent of the country’s sexual liberation. (Or maybe the NY Times reporter was lazy and just got his information from the Sunday Herald. Journalists can be real slackers.)
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By Kaiser
Joe Kahn’s not lazy and he’s quite well-informed – not at all a slacker. But he sure got this one wrong. The word in question, first tone “bi”, is used in all sorts of contexts. “Niubi” means literally “cow c*nt” and it means excellent, awesome or, in some contexts, full of one’s self. Calling someone a “shabi,” or “stupid c*nt” is one of the most commonplace insults. Both are used liberally at sports matches, as the Sunday Herald points out, usually soccer, to alternately praise and excoriate players. Its equivalent is definitely c*nt and not vagina. It’s a strange feeling to hear 70,000 fans all chanting “shabi!” at once. Then there’s “ni ma bi”, your mother’s privates, and “shi’r bi” and “zhuang bi” which both mean something close to “pretentious c*nt.” I could go on at length. Great, versatile word.
February 13, 2004 @ 9:21 pm | Comment
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By Kaiser
Joe Kahn’s not lazy and he’s quite well-informed – not at all a slacker. But he sure got this one wrong. The word in question, first tone “bi”, is used in all sorts of contexts. “Niubi” means literally “cow c*nt” and it means excellent, awesome or, in some contexts, full of one’s self. Calling someone a “shabi,” or “stupid c*nt” is one of the most commonplace insults. Both are used liberally at sports matches, as the Sunday Herald points out, usually soccer, to alternately praise and excoriate players. Its equivalent is definitely c*nt and not vagina. It’s a strange feeling to hear 70,000 fans all chanting “shabi!” at once. Then there’s “ni ma bi”, your mother’s privates, and “shi’r bi” and “zhuang bi” which both mean something close to “pretentious c*nt.” I could go on at length. Great, versatile word.
February 13, 2004 @ 9:21 pm | Comment
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By richard
Kaiser, I was just speculating out loud on why they both reporters came to the same erroneous conclusion. I find that very often ideas like this take hold and sort of become a “truth” even though they’re quite incorrect.
February 13, 2004 @ 11:20 pm | Comment
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By Adam Morris
Richard,
This isn’t even something from a few years back. It’s like he’s talking about 20 years ago.
It’s so wrong it’s shameful.
The word bi is as common in parlance as shit or fuck is for all of us. In fact, it’s more common than that. It’s China’s answer to “damn.”
February 14, 2004 @ 10:40 am | Comment
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By richard
It’s real strange that he got this so wrong. Hopefully he’ll read either my or Jeremy’s blog, and then post a correction.
February 14, 2004 @ 11:00 am | Comment
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By dave
As a native New Yorker, I grew up mocking the mistakes of the NYT, so I’m not looking to dismiss the criticism, but is it possible there was an editorial decision, perhaps something along the lines of angering the Chinese govt – why get them riled up by saying its a country of pottymouths, but wait for a bigger issue to piss them off?
Kaiser is right, Kahn doesn’t usually make dumb mistakes. Perhaps he handed it to the Unnamed Intern (there’s a Tomb of the UI at Columbia School of J – a constant bubbling cup of coffee).
Or, perhaps, it’s what I came to believe about the Times after reading it everyday since I could carry the Sunday edition: they print the news that fits. The headline should really be Eve Ensler Condescendingly Chides China: “China really needs to join the rest of the world”. That quote basically is the motto for the NYT spin on China. Everything is about how they resist joining us, or might be destroyed by joining us. And of course, our way is clearly more enlightened. In NYC, NYT tells you what to think while Zagat’s tells you where to eat. At least the CCP doesn’t choose my food.
February 14, 2004 @ 2:49 pm | Comment
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By richard
dave, I’m a native New Yorker, too and even worked over at the Times for three years. If they were worried about being politically correct, they could have just left the whole paragraph out. To knowingly alter the copy and make it untrue just to make Hu & Wen happy — to me, that is too farfetched. I like your other theory about the intern, though. (Just what we need, another intern scandal.)
February 14, 2004 @ 2:55 pm | Comment
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By Adam Morris
They also got the location of the sex museum wrong. It’s no longer in Shanghai, but Tongli, a cool 65 miles a way.
That article reeks.
February 14, 2004 @ 6:48 pm | Comment
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By Voluntarily in China
Two steps forward, one step back
Beijing and Shanghai banned the Vagina Monologues, not surprising given recent decisions. The cancellation of the performance which was scheduled for today, Valentine’s Day, was blamed on a “technicality,” according to the Beijing Cultural Bureau.”They…
February 14, 2004 @ 6:50 pm | Comment
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By Single Planet
Just don’t mention “vagina”
Every mainland blog has already commented on the fact that the dudes at the censorship board have banned The Vagina Monologues in both Beijing and Shanghai. Like it was a big surprise. In many countries, officials ban those movies/plays/DVDs that
February 14, 2004 @ 10:17 pm | Comment
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By dave
Cool, another straphanger! What’s your take, then, on my belief that the Times tries to make everything fit an Upper West Sider’s version of the Enlightenment?
February 15, 2004 @ 11:34 am | Comment
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By richard
It’s been many years since I worked over at West 43rd Street (and I mean many years). To be honest, I’ve always found The NYT to be, for all its warts, the best of the major newspapers, despite a great leap backward under Raines. It should be no surprise that it reflects its East Coast (and Upper West Side) readership. It can’t be all things to all people.
February 15, 2004 @ 12:03 pm | Comment
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By dave
I totally agree on all points. I’m just saying better to know what kind of animal it is. I still read it because I think I do know that.
February 15, 2004 @ 12:28 pm | Comment
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By Winds of Change.NET
PRC News — China Regional Briefing: 2004-03-18
The Gweilo documents Hong Kong politicians and their hardline — and therefore “patriotic” — attitude towards democratic supporters, while Wen Wei Po indicates they’ll Hong Kong politicians and their hardline — and therefore “patriotic” — attitude towards democratic supporters, while Wen Wei Po indicates they’ll February 19, 2004 @ 12:32 am | Comment