Blow the bull (Animal)

The other night my coworker Mary came into the office and told me with a stunned look that some male student told her five days after seeing each other was “too long” for them to have sex with their girlfriends. We chatted a little and our conversation ended with her self-mocking of how old-fashioned and “incapable” she was in terms of relationship.

Surrounded by the teenage night school students, many of whom have started working during the days, we always know they are more open than their peers in other high school in terms of sex. Since it is an industrial vocational high school, over 95 % of the students are male. We’re used to this kind of “men’s talk.”

But I know a lot of the talk is just bragging, 吹牛(chui niu2), literally meaning to “blow the bull.” To prove my guess, I discussed this with two of my students in one of the talks with them, which is an assignment from a class in my grad school. Their talk proved my theory. A lot of those talks about their sexual experiences are just bluff or brags, 吹牛.

Why do we say that to mean bragging?

There are several theories about the origin of this slang. One of them is that in the northwestern China, such as ShangXi or Inner Mongolia, people used to cross the river on rafts that were made of bull or goat hide. Like balloons, you had to expand the rafts by blowing air into them and tie them together. Such an act of blowing air was called吹牛.

It took not only skills but stamina to expand the whole raft, which usually was done by several men taking turns. As a result, if someone claims that he can do this all by himself, it would be吹牛, bragging. Or sometimes we add the word皮(pi2), hide, as吹牛皮(chui niu2 pi).

People who love to吹牛might end up with embarrassment when the facts are disclosed, like a balloon popping. We call this situation 牛皮吹破了(niu2 pi chui po4 le), bull hide exploded. Sometimes the brags are too far-fetched to believe, we’ll say the bragger is “bragging without a draft.”

吹牛不打草稿(chui niu2 bu4 da3 cao3 gao3)

I read online that in some dialects such as 蘇州(su zho) or 貴州(gui4 zho),吹牛also means shooting the breeze.

吹牛is also a poker game, where players have to try to disclose the other players’ lies about the cards they keep. Too bad that’s the only thing I can tell you about the game, which I don’t know how to play.

According to my observations, men seem to be more likely to吹牛. Why’s that? Could it be that they are generally demanded with higher standards, such as stronger, smarter, or more capable?

蘇州=苏州

貴州=贵州