撿屍 (up-to-date term)

The other day I read a piece of news where a teenage girl accused a man of taking her home in the way of 撿屍(jian3 shi) and raped her.

撿屍, literally meaning “picking up the body,” is a term coined recently from night clubs. In the early morning outside the night club, you might see some girls badly wasted lying motionlessly on the ground like dead bodies. Horny men come to them, pick them up, take them somewhere and have sex with them.

We do have a term 屍姦 (shi jian) for raping a body. Well, since a body won’t be able to express her will, it is considered a rape. That’s why we use the word姦 , meaning rape as in 強姦(qiang2 jian) ,or adultery as in 通姦 (tong jian).

It reminds me of an occupation in Taiwan called撿骨(jian3 gu3), picking up the bones. In Taiwanese custom, those who are buried underground will be dug out of the earth several years later, their bones washed, rearranged into a jar and buried again (except for those who pass away younger than sixteen.) Such a job is carefully done by professionals called撿骨師 (jian3 gu3 shi) with complicated procedure.

Well, for those who don’t want to be treated like a body but want to have fun at night clubs, maybe they should pick up their designated driver指定駕駛 (zhi3 ding4 jia4 shi3) before they start to party.  

撿屍=捡尸

屍姦=尸奸

撿骨師=捡骨师

指定駕駛=指定驾驶