#watchmovieschinese

[echineselearning-blog1]

Watched Any “狗血 Dog Blood” Movies Lately?

There are some Mandarin Chinese words that just don’t have an exact equivalent in English. Because when it comes to slang, there are a lot of hidden meanings behind each and every word. And you really have to know the full meaning to be able to use it correctly in any sentence.

Whenever I introduce a new Chinese slang word to my students, I make sure to give them a thorough background of it, so they are better equipped to use it correctly in daily conversation.

One of my favorite Mandarin slang words is: “狗血 (gǒuxiě)” In daily life, “狗血 (gǒuxiě)” is used commonly by youth. Many Mandarin Language teachers also use the word when talking about study topics such as TV dramas, internet slang, etc. with their Chinese language students.

What does it mean? “狗血 (gǒuxiě)” means absurd, exaggerated, ridiculous, contrived. When we breakdown the characters, we get:

狗 (gǒu): n. dog.

血 (xiě): n. blood.

Origin It is said that the word originated in the 1990s, when the Hong Kong and Taiwanese films were popular in the television industry.

In those Hong Kong TV Series, there was a scene repeated over and over again in many of the films. It always looked the same: A person would sprinkle the “狗血 (gǒuxiě) dog blood” to drive evil spirits away if someone was controlled by a menacing evil. Later, people use “狗血 (gǒuxiě)” to joke about the use of the same old, repeated boring scenes or story sequences in a TV drama or film.

What are some of these “狗血 (gǒuxiě)” scenes in popular Chinese TV Dramas? I know you know them! • Every time when something bad/sad happens, rain is beating down heavily outside. • Every time someone is about to die, he/she just never has quite enough time to...

...for the full lesson on “狗血 (gǒuxiě)”  you can read the entire lesson with us here.