Black cat vs. 辣妹 (up-to-date term)

What does it exactly mean when you hear someone describing his or her grandma in South Min Dialect as a “black back” 黑貓(hei mao)when she was young?

It was a common expression for a beautiful woman in my mom’s generation. You can imagine the term “black dog,” 黑狗(hei gou3) as a counterpart referring to a good-looking man. Sometimes we’ll add the word 兄(xong), brother to it as黑狗兄.

These days the terms are hardly used. Instead you hear people calling pretty girls正妹(zheng4 mei) (with 妹pronounced as mei instead of its usual tone mei4 .) or美眉(mei3 mei2). Compared with美女(mei3 nu3), beauty, these two terms appeared quite lately and are usually used for those young girls, while the latter has a much broader range. You may call a 70-year-old 美女, but it would sound weird to use正妹 or 美眉to describe her.

The British pop girl group Spice Girls is called 辣妹合唱團(la4 mei4 he2 chang4 tuan2) in Taiwan. 辣means spicy hot, which was originally used for the flavor of food. For pungent or acrimonious remarks, we’ll use the term辛辣(xin la4) for them. With the popularity of the group Spice Girls, 辣妹 is often heard to call those young girls, especially those who dress themselves or act in a revealing, provoking style. I think  it is also influenced by the English word “hot.”

Adjectives like帥(shuai4) ,英俊(ying jun4)，瀟灑(xiao sa3)used to be mentioned quite often to describe good-looking men, and so was the noun 帥哥(shuai4 ge). These days, however, it doesn’t sound so chic to use these terms.

According to Wikipedia, in 1994 a new term “metrosexual” was coined in by Mark Simpson in an article where he described a man (especially one living in an urban culture) who spends a lot of time and money on shopping for his appearance. The term is translated into 都會美型男(du hui4 mei3 xing2 nan2). As a result, 型男(xing2 nan2) has been frequently mentioned to refer to those men with the charisma of Beckham or Brad Pitt. And sometimes we’ll say someone, especially male, is quite有型(you3 xing2), meaning he has his personal style and is uniquely charming.

As to those macho hunks of muscles, we call them猛男(meng3 nan2), which is often used as a counterpart of辣妹. In a 猛男 show, you’ll see dancing men casting their charm to the screaming women.

  

The word “old” has turned a taboo word. For those who have past the age of正妹 or辣妹, somewhere after 30 or so, (some people put 25 as the threshold.) people will call them熟女. 熟 means ripe, mature.

To write this article, I surfed online and learned that age is not the only requirement for a 熟女. To be a 熟女, they got to have their own career so as to be financially independent. With their abundant experiences, they are confident, wise, mature and skillful socially. Carry in Sex and the City is an example. They are divided into 輕熟女(qing shou2 nu3) and 重熟女(zhong4 shou2 nu3) according to their age. 輕 means light while重, heavy. Some people define the latter as women ranging from 36 to 42.

What about women after 42? Haven’t those creative people exercised their brains that are rife with ideas and come up with any innovative terms? Does it mean that few people care about women who have passed 42? Or, they just look much alike anyway?

黑貓=黑猫

辣妹合唱團=辣妹合唱团

都會美型男=都会美型男

輕熟女=轻熟女