炒來炒去 (slang)

It’s not uncommon to see a cook stir-frying炒菜(chao3 cai4)at a Chinese restaurant. You see the cook turning his shovel with the burning flames and the steaming smoke. You hear the jingling noise from the frying pan and turning shovel.

You’re wrong if you think the only thing we stir-fry is food.

When someone makes a fortune by speculating in real estate, we’ll say he made a fortune by炒地皮(chao3 di4 pi2) or 炒房產(chao3 fang2 chan3), literally meaning “stir-frying” land or real estate. People in Hong Kong might say 炒樓(chao3 lou2).

It’s been a heated topic these days in Taiwan as DDP’s vice presidential candidate Su Jia-chyuan’s spotlighted “luxurious farm house” has raised a lot of controversy. With the disclosure of Su’s several illegal property, people suspect that he and his wife had abused his power as Pingtung county magistrate or president of Council of Agriculture and involved in 炒地皮.

Not only can you炒地皮, you can also炒股(chao3 gu3), speculate in the stock market, 股票市場(gu3 piao4 shi4 chang3). Since stocks are called 股票, the act of speculators’ frequent trading, or the pump and dump in the stock market thus is compared to that of the cooks stir-frying in the pan.

With the approach of the presidential election, tons of political hypes are going on with the media. Politicians are not alone in doing this. Entertainers striving for publicity sometimes promote themselves doing the same, such as getting reported for being involved with some celebrities. Such an act is called 炒新聞(chao3 xin wen2), “stir-frying news.”

 

炒魷魚(chao3 you2 yu2), “stir-frying squid” is certainly not a good piece of news for an employee, because it means getting fired by your boss. I’m not sure the origin of this saying.

A theory about this is that in Hong Kong or Kuangdong, there used to be a lot of immigrating laborers who came along with only a sack or bamboo mat to sleep on, which is also called 舖蓋(pu4 gai4). When an employee was fired, he had to roll up his sack and leave; thus comes the term捲舖蓋走路(jian3 pu4 gai4 zou3 lu4), roll up the sack and leave, to mean getting fired. The rolled up sack resembles the curled stir-fried squid in shape as you see in the picture below. This is said to be the origin of the term炒魷魚to mean getting fired.

 炒鱿鱼_互动百科 300 x 256 |19k hudong.com

Last but not least. Though I mentioned it in my previous writing about euphemism, I think as I’m talking about the 炒-related terms, I’d better not miss this one—炒飯(chao3 fen4), which in Taiwan is sometimes used not to refer to stir-fried rice as its original meaning, but an euphemism for having sex.

炒房產=炒房产

炒樓=炒楼

股票市場=股票市场

炒新聞=炒新闻

炒魷魚=炒鱿鱼

捲舖蓋走路=卷铺盖走路

炒飯=炒饭