Twitter Bits: Chinese Ghosts and Emoji Translations

Here at Radii one of our core functions is to waste a bunch of time on China Twitter so you don’t have to. Lately most of the China chatter on English-language social media has centered around North Korea and elite PRC politics ahead of that big meeting in October, but there are a few bits in between that noise that are less dour in tone.

Such as these handy renderings of Chinese onomatopoeia into universal emojis by translator and writer Liz Carter:

喵 (miāo) ? meow
汪 (wāng) ? woof
哞 (móu) ? moo
呱 (guā) ? quack
咩 (miē) ? baa
唧唧唧 (jījījī) ? cheep cheep cheep
咯咯咯 (gēgēgē) ? cockadoodledoo!

— Liz Carter (@withoutdoing) September 12, 2017

哎 (ài) ? *sigh*
诶 (éi) ? hmm?
嗯 (èn) ? mmhmm
哈 (hā) ? haha
呵 (hē) ? hehe
呼 (hū) ? zzz
哦 (ò) ? oh
呸 (pēi) ? pfft
哇 (wà) ? wow
呜 (wū) ? boohoo

— Liz Carter (@withoutdoing) September 11, 2017

Fun and useful!

We’ve also been enjoying a daily series by London-based writer and speaker Xueting Christine Ni, who is working on a book about Chinese deities. A few days ago she started posting one Chinese ghost a day in commemoration of Ghost Month:

Tomorrow is start of ZhongYuan or #GhostMonth, https://t.co/ps50yu0RiT I'll talk about 1 #Chinese ? or demon a day,hope you enjoy my tweets!

— Xueting Christine Ni (@xuetingni) September 4, 2017

#ghostmonth 独角鬼王 Du Jiao Gui Wang, lit. Singled Horned Demon King. A very powerful demon whose demonic essence is concentrated in his horn. pic.twitter.com/aZKx4ZelMK

— Xueting Christine Ni (@xuetingni) September 12, 2017

#ghostmonth 吊靴鬼, Diao Xue Gui, (lit. "Hanging on boots ghost"). Likes to follow people around at night, plays mischievous pranks behind them pic.twitter.com/WZEWyF78mV

— Xueting Christine Ni (@xuetingni) September 11, 2017

#ghostmonth 刀劳鬼, Dao Lao Gui, lives in the mountains, likes to roar in the wind and rain; shoots poisonous darts. #China pic.twitter.com/1nkjmWStB4

— Xueting Christine Ni (@xuetingni) September 9, 2017

Follow Liz here for more bite-sized Chinese lessons, and follow Christine here for your daily demon fix for the remainder of Ghost Month.