The Chinese way of referring to dates is in this order: year month day.
For well-known events, the convention is to shorten it to just the numbers for the month and the day, with people being expected to know which year it’d happened.
So, the Tian’anmen Square incident, which took place on 4th June 1989 (in Chinese: 一九八九年六月四号 / yìjiǔbājiǔnián liùyuè sìhào / “1989 year 6th month 4th day”), would be referred to as 六四 / liù sì / “6[th] 4[th]”.
International Women’s Day is 8th March, so the Chinese would call it 三八婦女節 / 三八妇女节 / sān bā fùnǚjié / “3[rd] 8[th] women festival”.
In Taiwan, there’s a Chinese equivalent for the English expression “the lights are on but nobody’s home” (to describe someone who’s not entirely with it): 三八 / sān bā / “3 8”. If you were to do or say something your friends consider daft, they’ll say you’re sān bā.
During my two years in Taiwan, men would ask me on 8th March, in Chinese,
今天是不是三八妇女节
jīntiān shì búshì sān bā fùnǚjié
“today is not-is 3 8 women festival”
Is today the 3 8 women festival?
Every time, I’d answer “是 / It is”, which they’d immediately pounce on with, “So you’re saying that there is a festival for daft women then?!?”
The parsing for their version would be:
三八妇女 sān bā fùnǚ (daft women) as one cluster
and
节 jié (festival) as one cluster,
instead of
三八 sān bā (March 8) as one cluster
and
妇女节 fùnǚjié (women’s festival) as one.
The Chinese sense of humour just loves such word play and catching people out. I fell for it every single time.
(Taiwan, 1975 & 1976)
老师，我觉得三八的意思也是绯闻少女，是不是？
ReplyDeleteSorry, forgot to answer this sooner... (Brain's just arrived on the slow bus/train.)
DeleteI've not personally heard of another meaning of 三八 being the whole concept of 绯闻少女 / fēiwén shàonǚ / "scandal young female".
三八 is certainly not exclusively applied to 少女, not in my experience of the usage of the term in Taiwan anyway (and in 1975–76). (It's not in Singapore Chinese usage.) It only means "daft", and can be applied to both men and women, I feel. More often used when teasing someone of one's own generation, usually by the younger generation.
"绯闻 / fēiwén" means scandal, which 三八 does not imply. 绯闻女孩 / fēiwén nǚhái / "scandal girl(s)" is the Chinese translation for the American drama series Gossip Girls.
(from googling) “三八”主要有两种含义：一是3月8日“国际劳动妇女节”的简称；二是在台语和日常俗语中，形容女性言行举止轻浮、疯癫、做事鲁莽、不够庄重或爱八卦，带有贬义，有时也用于戏谑亲昵地称呼对方傻气。该词亦可用于抗日战争时期的“三八式”步枪。
(google translate) Quote The term "三八" (Sān Bā) has two main meanings: First, it's an abbreviation for International Women's Day, March 8th. Second, in Taiwanese and everyday slang, it describes a woman as frivolous, eccentric, reckless, lacking in decorum, or gossipy, carrying a negative connotation. It's sometimes used playfully and affectionately to refer to someone as silly. The term can also be used to refer to the Type 38 rifle used during the Anti-Japanese War. Unquote