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CHUNGKING EXPRESS 1994, dir. Wong Kar-wai

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疼? 痛? 疼痛? What's the difference?

Though I grew up with Mandarin and Cantonese, I realised I only have a vague understanding of what these words meant, and coming across this video post recently made me think deeper about what 「疼痛」 really means.

疼痛 (🥮 tang⁴ tung³，🀄 ㄊㄥˊㄊㄨㄥˋ/téng tòng)

「疼痛」 used together describes pain generally, but when you're describing physical pain in a specific body part, you'd use one character or the other.

e.g.: 頭疼/頭痛、胃疼/胃痛、牙疼/牙痛

Headache, stomachache, toothache; all can be described in English as some kind of "ache” but in Chinese, there's 「疼」 and there's 「痛」 and both can be/have been used interchangeably.

So what's the real difference between 「疼」 and 「痛」? Because in English, 「疼」 and 「痛」 can both be translated as simply “pain”, but from an Ancient Chinese view, 「疼」 and 「痛」 have nuances, and even native Chinese speakers may not know of the differences.

To paraphrase some parts from this site (and I've gone through a few other sites and videos that also more or less say the same things, but as always with the internet, take things with a pinch of salt):

「疼」 ～ clues can be found in the character itself; looking at the construction of the character, made up of 「疒」, the radical for "illness” and the character for "winter”, 「冬」. In winter, the bitter cold of winter causes all living creatures to naturally withdraw in body and spirit (figuratively speaking), and this “discomfort” felt directly from external environmental changes is the essence of 「庝」.

Simply put, 「庝」 refers more to external pain and the body's reaction to external aggravators.

「疼」 was also once written as 「痋」, with the character 「虫」 for “worm”, so it showed even more clearly that external aggravators are responsible for causing 「疼/痋」.

「痛」 ～ this character is made up of 「疒」 and the character 「甬」, which has the meaning of "flow through” in ancient times and with regards to the body, refers to the "flow of vitality” inside.

Thus, 「痛」 refers more specifically to internal pain, the kind of pain that affects the body's "flow of vitality”, in line with Traditional Chinese Medicine's (TCM) principle that 「痛」 indicates “obstruction somewhere in the body”, and that "unobstructed flow eliminates pain”.

So for example, it would be more accurate to use 「手指疼」 and 「頭疼」 for experiencing something like a cut finger or a temporary headache from external stresses (like an extremely noisy environment for example), while it would be more accurate to define a chronic migraine that's caused by something internally as 「頭痛」.

A stomachache though is a little more tricky? Say you got a stomachache from food poisoning, it causes internal pain in your body, but because the source of the pain (bad food) came from outside, is it 「胃痛」 or 「胃疼」? 🤔 I guess it's truly interchangeable in this case?

That's my understanding/conclusion at least!

Also, because 「痛」 is "internal”, it is also used to describe emotional or figurative pain. So for example if you broke up with someone in a relationship, you'd describe your emotional heartache as 「心痛」, 「痛」 cannot be interchanged with 「疼」 in this case (and 「心疼」 means something else anyway — read further on) because you're describing a feeling that "goes through your entire body”, kind of an indescribable feeling, really.

Of course, in a hospital setting, when you say you are experiencing 「心痛」, that may literally mean your physical heart is hurting! 🙀😹

Another way to differentiate between 「疼」 and 「痛」 is having an idea of the 「陰陽」 — what Westerners may have only heard of as "Yin and Yang” ☯️ — philosophy in TCM.

Basically, 「陰陽」 can be very roughly explained as an ancient Chinese belief/philosophy that the world is made up of complementary and opposing forces, 「陰」 is seen as the “internal force” and 「陽」 is thus the “external force” (not a scholar here, this is just my really basic, layman's understanding of what 「陰陽」 is).

From this perspective in TCM, 「疼」 and 「痛」 can be understood as a manifestation of an imbalance between 「陰」 and 「陽」 in the body.

「疼」 (because it's about external pain) is thus a 「陽」 element and 「痛」 (internal pain) is 「陰」.

I find it interesting that in the phrasing 「疼痛」 (it's never said 「痛疼」 together), 「陰陽」 is now flipped around (it's never said the other way round too), and according to the aforementioned concept of 「陰陽」, 「陽陰」 further highlights the "imbalance of the body pain brings”.

Anyway, the Chinese influencer (in that video post) claims that Northern Chinese use 「疼」 more while Southerners use 「痛」 to describe physical pain, that the difference between the two is more a region thing.

I guess I half agree with this? I don't know about the North, but as a Southerner, I have used 「疼」 and 「痛」 interchangeably and have heard other Southerners use so as well, with about equal frequency but…I think it could be a generation thing? In the 1990s to noughties (and before I guess), I do recall hearing fellow Southerners using 「疼」 just as much as 「痛」, and speakers who grew up around that era do seem to know how to apply the different characters accordingly for the most part, even if going on just instinct (like me)!

But in later generations (Gen Z and after), the distinction between 「疼」 and 「痛」 seems to have been lost? People (Southerners, at least) seem to use 「痛」 to describe every type of physical pain nowadays.

The influencer also claims that Northerners and Southerners view using the opposite term of what Northerners and Southerners supposedly favour, as speaking or behaving immaturely. This, I totally disagree with. After all, it should be the action that determines behaviour, and not the word itself.

And in all my years of using 「疼」 and 「痛」 interchangeably, I have never thought I was describing pain in a childish manner because of a word choice, nor been thought of as so by others.

I do wonder how that influencer came to this conclusion…is this a generational thing too? Are younger people from both North and South assigning infantile perceptions towards pain now? ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ But why would anyone want to do that‽

If one character is to be seen as more “immature” over the other, I rather think that would be 「疼」 because 「疼」 has the additional meaning of “dote on” (like doting on a small child) or “having tender feelings” for someone in words like 「疼愛」 and 「心疼」, meanings where 「痛」 cannot be interchanged for in these cases.

So, if you've read through this far, do you understand the nuances of 「疼」 and 「痛」 better now? Have you been describing your pain "correctly”? Which have you been using more?

Thanks for reading my ramblings! ｡⁠◕⁠‿⁠◕⁠｡

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OK from now on,

🇭🇰🇲🇴 → 🥮

I just remembered the existence of the 🥮 mooncake emoji. Going to use it to denote Cantonese 粵拼 (Jyutping — Cantonese Romanisation) in my language posts henceforth.

I think it's perfect to represent Cantonese too, because there's a pun in 「月」 from 月餅 (🥮 jyut⁶ beng²) — the Cantonese pronunciation for "mooncake” and 「粵」 from 粵語 (🥮 jyut⁶ jyu⁵) — a term for the Cantonese topolect.

Frankly, I have always been a little uncomfortable with using region flags' emoji to represent or denote what languages I speak/am writing/am learning, because the usage of region flags can be so…politically charged — not that anyone has given me grief for using flags' emoji so far — and in the case of the Cantonese I am self-learning, it's not exactly the same as the Cantonese from 🇭🇰 Hong Kong or 🇲🇴 Macau either, so to use those regions' flags seems inaccurate to me.

But because the language community seems to have generally embraced using flags' emoji to represent languages, and I couldn't think of anything better to use before, I mostly went along with it, until now that is!

I had the same dilemma with Mandarin, but gleefully had the brainwave to use the 🀄 mahjong emoji for a while now, and I think it turned out a fortuitous choice!

Going to be using more neutral emoji to denote the other languages, English (🇬🇧 → 🎩 top hat) and Japanese (🇯🇵 → 🍙 onigiri) as well; Mandarin will remain the same 🀄 mahjong emoji.

This has been a PSA I guess? (If anyone cares for my posts.)

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↑ Because someone expressed an interest in a Zhuyin chart to compare against the Kana chart…｡⁠◕⁠‿⁠◕⁠｡ (I was interested too!)

How did “bopomofo” originate?

Like the Japanese 仮名 (Kana) chart, the 注音 (Zhuyin) (aka “bopomofo” colloquially) chart took its cue by adapting from existing 漢字 (Chinese characters).

Some 注音 characters are taken from archaic, obsolete or variant 漢字. For example, 「𠫓」, 「巜」 and 「㐅」 are obsolete characters of 「突」, 「澮」 and 「五」 respectively, and 「甽」 is an alternative character to the standardised 「畎」.

And sometimes, a character is just flipped or modified from another one; for example, 「ㄛ」 is supposed to be a mirror image of 「丂」, and 「ㄜ」 is just 「ㄛ」 with a little extension.

P.S.: An easy-to-see-all-at-once image chart that shows which 漢字 “bopomofo” evolved from was surprisingly not easy to find! In the end, I compiled this on my own, sorry for some askew alignment (I have an eyesight problem).

P.P.S.: Info on development of “bopomofo” taken from Wiki.

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『想い出のハヤシライス』

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How did Hiragana & Katakana originate?

“Katakana 片仮名 script was first created by picking up one radical from a Kanji 漢字. Every Katakana syllable is identical to a part of its parent Kanji from which it was created. To be more specific Kana scripts were created from Manyougana 万葉仮名. Irrespective of their meanings these Kanji were used to represent Japanese syllables.

On the other hand, Hiragana 平仮名 characters are simplified versions of whole Kanji characters.”

n.b.：ゐ/ヰ and ゑ/ヱ were once part of the Kana 仮名 chart, it is pronounced as “い” and “え” respectively but spelt in Romaji as "wi” and “we”; after a reform of the Kana chart in 1946, it's no longer found in current standard Kana charts; these characters may still be seen around today, most common examples would be the word “whisky” (standardised as ウィスキー today, but was once written as ウヰスキー and some old advertisements may still reflect that) or the beer brand "Yebisu/Ebisu” (still written as ヱビス in Japanese today, for historical, branding or artistic reasons).

P.S.：To type out ゐ/ヰ or ゑ/ヱ respectively, input “wyi” or “wye” on a Romaji keyboard, on a 12-key flick keyboard, look under “い” and “え”.

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Black Jack's cliffside house as depicted in the 1996 film.

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崖广 ～ “house built on a cliff; very dangerous”

You don't say! Who would've ever thought that? 😹

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講個笑話 (預先聲明：來源不由我)

A joke (disclaimer: did not originate from me)

問：你知不知道哪種帽是又時尚又性感的？

答：流行性感冒。

(Did you get this joke (pun)? 😹 If not, look under the cut.)

Qn.: Do you know which kind of cap is both fashionable and sexy?

Ans.: Influenza.

帽 = cap (🇭🇰🇲🇴 mou²，🀄 mào)

時尚/流行 = in vogue; fashionable

性感 = sexy

感冒 = (catch a) cold (🇭🇰🇲🇴 gam² mou⁶，🀄 gǎn mào)

流行性感冒 = full blown influenza, aka “the flu”

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Eat Know your vegetables, they're good for you!

Someone, gift 林婆婆 Granny Lam some vegetables already!

(This video has been floating around for some time now but it never gets old! 😹)

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Holiday Knights The New Batman Adventures

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Batman Forever (1995)

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I cannot believe this whole scene.