by Kylie Chan
Lo Wu Shopping Centre: A large shopping centre directly across the Hong Kong/Chinese border on the Chinese side. A shopping destination for Hong Kong residents in search of a bargain.
Love hotel: Hotel with rooms that are rented by the hour by young people who live with their parents (and therefore have no privacy) or businessmen meeting their mistresses for sex.
M’goi sai (Cantonese): ‘Thank you very much.’
M’sai (Cantonese): Literally, ‘no need’, but it generally means ‘you’re welcome’.
Macau: One-time Portuguese colony to the west of Hong Kong in the Pearl River Delta, about an hour away by jet hydrofoil; now another Special Administrative Region of China. Macau’s port is not as deep and sheltered as Hong Kong’s so it has never been the busy trade port that Hong Kong is.
Mafoo (Cantonese): Groom.
Mah jong: Chinese game played with tiles. The Chinese play it differently from the polite game played by many Westerners; it is played for money and can often be a cut-throat competition between skilled players, rather like poker.
Manga: Japanese illustrated novel or comic book.
Mei mei (Putonghua): Little sister.
MTR: Fast, cheap, efficient and spotlessly clean subway train system in Hong Kong. Mostly standing room, and during rush hour so packed that it is often impossible to get onto a carriage.
Na Zha: Famous mythical Immortal who was so powerful as a child that he killed one of the dragon sons of the Dragon King. He gained Immortality by unselfishly travelling into Hell to release his parents who had been held in punishment for his crime. A spirit of Youthfulness.
New Territories: A large area of land between Kowloon and Mainland China that was granted to extend Hong Kong. Less crowded than Hong Kong and Kowloon, the New Territories are green and hilly with highrise New Towns scattered through them.
Nunchucks: Short wooden sticks held together with chains; a martial arts weapon.
Opium Wars: (1839–60) A series of clashes between the then British Empire and the Imperial Chinese Government over Britain’s right to trade opium to China. It led to a number of humiliating defeats and surrenders by China as they were massively outclassed by modern Western military technology.
Pa Kua (Cantonese): The Eight Symbols, a central part of Taoist mysticism. Four of these Eight Symbols flank the circle in the centre of the Korean flag.
Pak Tai: One of Xuan Wu’s many names; this one is used in Southern China.
Peak Tower: Tourist sightseeing spot at the top of the Peak Tram. Nestled between the two highest peaks on the Island and therefore not the highest point in Hong Kong, but providing a good view for tourist photographs.
Peak Tram: Tram that has been running for many years between Central and the Peak. Now mostly a tourist attraction because of the steepness of the ride and the view.
Peak, the: Prestigious residential area of Hong Kong, on top of the highest point of the centre of Hong Kong Island. The view over the Harbour and highrises is spectacular, and the property prices there are some of the highest in the world.
Pipa: A Chinese musical instrument, shaped like a mandolin, but played vertically with the body of the instrument held in the lap.
Pokfulam: Area of Hong Kong west of the main business districts, facing the open ocean rather than the harbour. Contains large residential apartment blocks and a very large hillside cemetery.
Putonghua: Also called Mandarin, the dialect of Chinese spoken throughout China as a standard language. Individual provinces have their own dialects but Putonghua is spoken as a common tongue.
Qing Long (Putonghua) pronounced, roughly, Ching Long: The Azure Dragon of the East.
Ramen (Japanese): Instant two-minute noodles.
Repulse Bay: A small swimming beach surrounded by an expensive residential enclave of high- and low-rise apartment blocks on the south side of Hong Kong Island.
Salute, Chinese: The left hand is closed into a fist and the right hand is wrapped around it. Then the two hands are held in front of the chest and sometimes shaken.
Sashimi (Japanese): Raw fish.
Seiza: Japanese kneeling position.
Sensei (Japanese): Master.
Seppuku: Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment: hari-kiri.
Sha Tin: A New Territories ‘New Town’, consisting of a large shopping centre surrounded by a massive number of highrise developments on the banks of the Shing Mun River.
Shaolin: Famous temple, monastery and school of martial arts, as well as a style of martial arts.
Shen: Shen has two meanings, in the same sense that the English word spirit has two meanings (‘ghost’ and ‘energy’). Shen can mean an Immortal being, something like a god in Chinese mythology. It is also the spirit that dwells within a person, the energy of their soul.
Shenzhen: The city at the border between Hong Kong and China, a ‘special economic zone’ where capitalism has been allowed to flourish. Most of the goods manufactured in China for export to the West are made in Shenzhen.
Sheung Wan: The western end of the Hong Kong Island MTR line; most people get off the train before reaching this station.
Shoji (Japanese): Screen of paper stretched over a wooden frame.
Shui (Cantonese): ‘Water’.
Shui gow: Chinese dumplings made of pork and prawn meat inside a dough wrapping, boiled in soup stock.
Shroff Office: A counter in a car park where you pay the parking fee before returning to your car.
Sifu (Cantonese): Master.
Siu mai: Dim sum served at yum cha; a steamed dumpling with a skin of wheat flour containing prawn and pork.
Sow mei (Cantonese): A type of Chinese tea, with a greenish colour and a light, fragrant flavour.
Stanley Market: A famous market on the south side of Hong Kong island, specialising in tourist items.
Star Ferry: Small oval green and white ferries that run a cheap service between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.
Sticky rice: Dim sum served at yum cha; glutinous rice filled with savouries such as pork and thousand-year egg, wrapped in a green leaf and steamed.
Sun Wu Kong (Cantonese): The Monkey King’s real name.
Tae kwon do: Korean martial art.
Tai chi: A martial art that consists of a slow series of movements, used mainly as a form of exercise and chi manipulation to enhance health and extend life. Usable as a lethal martial art by advanced practitioners. There are several different styles of tai chi, including Chen, Yang and Wu, named after the people who invented them.
Tai chi chuan: Full correct name for tai chi.
Tai Koo Shing: large enclosed shopping mall on the north side of Hong Kong.
Tai Tai (Cantonese): Lit. ‘wife’ but in this context it refers to a wealthy middle-aged Hong Kong woman who spends all her time shuffling between designer clothing stores, expensive lunches, and beauty salons.
Tao Teh Ching: A collection of writings by Lao Tzu on the elemental nature of Taoist philosophy.
Tao, the: ‘The Way’. A perfect state of consciousness equivalent to the Buddhist Nirvana, in which a person becomes completely attuned with the universe and achieves Immortality. Also the shortened name of a collection of writings (the Tao Teh Ching) on Taoist philosophy written by Lao Tzu.
Taoism: Similar to Buddhism, but the state of perfection can be reached by a number of different methods, including alchemy and internal energy manipulation as well as meditation and spirituality.
Tatami (Japanese): Rice-fibre matting.
Temple Street: A night market along a street on Kowloon side in Hong Kong. Notorious as a triad gang hangout as well as being one of Hong Kong’s more colourful markets.
Ten Levels of Hell: It is believed that a human soul travels through ten levels of Hell, being judged and punished for a particular type of sin at each level. Upon reaching the lowest, or tenth, level, the soul is given an elixir of forgetfulness and returned to Earth to reincarnate and live another life.
Teppan (Japanese): Hotpl
ate used for cooking food at teppanyaki.
Teppanyaki (Japanese): Meal where the food is cooked on the teppan in front of the diners and served when done.
Thousand-year egg: A duck egg that’s been preserved in a mixture of lime, ash, tea and salt for one hundred days, making the flesh of the egg black and strong in flavour.
Tikuanyin (Cantonese; or Tikuanyum): Iron Buddha Tea. A dark, strong and flavourful black Chinese tea. Named because, according to legend, the first tea bush of this type was found behind a roadside altar containing an iron statue of Kwan Yin.
Tin Hau (Cantonese): Taoist deity, worshipped by seafarers.
Triad: Hong Kong organised-crime syndicate. Members of the syndicates are also called triads.
Tsim Sha Tsui: Main tourist and entertainment district on Kowloon side, next to the Harbour.
Tsing Ma Bridge: Large suspension bridge connecting Kowloon with Lantau Island, used to connect to the Airport Expressway.
Typhoon: A hurricane that occurs in Asia. Equivalent to a hurricane in the US or a cyclone in Australia.
Wakizashi: Japanese dagger, usually matched with a sword to make a set called a daisho.
Wan Chai: Commercial district on Hong Kong Island, between the offices and designer stores of Central and the shopping area of Causeway Bay. Contains office buildings and restaurants, and is famous for its nightclubs and girlie bars.
Wan sui (Putonghua): ‘Ten thousand years’; traditional greeting for the Emperor, wishing him ten thousand times ten thousand years of life.
Wei? (Cantonese): ‘Hello?’ when answering the phone.
Wing chun: Southern style of Chinese kung fu. Made famous by Bruce Lee, this style is fast, close in (‘short’) and lethal. It’s also a ‘soft’ style where the defender uses the attacker’s weight and strength against him or her, rather than relying on brute force to hit hard.
Wire-fu: Move kung-fu performed on wires so that the actors appear to be flying.
Won ton (Cantonese): Chinese dumplings made mostly of pork with a dough wrapping and boiled in soup stock. Often called ‘short soup’ in the West.
Won ton mien (Cantonese): ‘won ton noodles’; won ton boiled in stock with noodles added to the soup.
Wu shu (Putonghua): A general term to mean all martial arts.
Wudang (Putonghua): A rough translation could be ‘true martial arts’. The name of the mountain in Hubei Province; also the name of the martial arts academy and the style of martial arts taught there. Xuan Wu was a Celestial ‘sponsor’ of the Ming Dynasty and the entire mountain complex of temples and monasteries was built by the government of the time in his honour.
Wudangshan (Putonghua): ‘Shan’ means ‘mountain’; Wudang Mountain.
Xie xie (Putonghua): ‘Thank you.’
Xuan Wu (Putonghua) pronounced, roughly, ‘Shwan Wu’: means ‘Dark Martial Arts’; the Black Turtle of the North, Mr Chen.
Yamen: Administration, as in Yamen Building.
Yang: One of the two prime forces of the Universe in Taoist philosophy. Yang is the Light: masculine, bright, hot and hard.
Yang and yin: The two prime forces of the universe, when joined together form the One, the essence of everything. The symbol of yang and yin shows each essence containing a small part of the other.
Yellow Emperor: An ancient mythological figure, the Yellow Emperor is credited with founding civilisation and inventing clothing and agriculture.
Yin: One of the two prime forces of the universe in Taoist philosophy. Yin is Darkness: feminine, dark, cold and soft.
Yuexia Loaren (Putonghua): ‘Old Man Under the Moon’; a Taoist deity responsible for matchmaking.
Yum cha (Cantonese): Literally ‘drink tea’. Most restaurants hold yum cha between breakfast and midafternoon. Tea is served, and waitresses wheel around trolleys containing varieties of dim sum.
Yuzhengong (Putonghua): ‘Find the True Spirit’; the name of the palace complex on Wudang Mountain.
Zhu Que (Putonghua) pronounced, roughly, Joo Chway: the Red Phoenix of the South.
CULTURAL NOTES
Animals on the edge of the roof:
Traditional Chinese buildings have upturned roofs and on official buildings there is always the same series of creatures. The point of the roof holds a man riding a chicken (or phoenix), and he is followed by a series of mythical creatures, with a dragon’s head at the very back. The more creatures behind the man, the higher the building is in the Imperial hierarchy. Buildings in the Forbidden City have nine animals; in a small province there would be only one between the man and the dragon. The small vignette is a reminder and a warning to those working inside the building, that whatever they do, all of the mythical creatures on the roof are watching them, and will pounce on them and devour them if they stray from their official duty.
Ah Ting:
Part of the legend of the ‘Creation of the Gods’ involves the raising of all concerned to the Celestial. When it came time to choose the person for the job of Jade Emperor, the leader of the winning side graciously and politely didn’t immediately take the position, he just said ‘Ting, ting.’ (‘Wait, wait.’) Legend has it that a rogue by the name of Ting jumped up and loudly accepted the post of Jade Emperor, and as it was what the leader had said, he was given the post.
Further reading
I have expanded my library considerably while researching for the second trilogy, Journey to Wudang, and I have delved deeper into the mythology, as well as the texts and scriptures, of Taoism. Here is a list of some of the works that I have added to my collection, and may be of interest:
A Selected Collection of Mencius, Sinolingua, Beijing, 2006
A Selected Collection of the Analects, Confucius, Sinolingua, Beijing, 2006
Anecdotes about Spirits and Immortals (in two volumes) by Gan Bao, translated into English by Ding Wangdao, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 2004
Creation of the Gods (in four volumes), Xu Zhonglin, Translated by Gu Zhizhong, New World Press, Beijing, 2000
Early Taoist Scriptures, Stephen R Bokenkamp, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1997
Journey to the North, Gary Seaman, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1987
Journey to the West, Wu Cheng’En, Translated by W J F Jenner, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1993
Secret of the Golden Flower, Lu Yen, NuVision E-book, 2004
Selected Chinese Tales of the Han, Wei, and Six Dynasties Periods, Translated by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 2001
The Origin of Chinese Deities, Cheng Manchao, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1995
The Scripture on Great Peace: the Tai Ping Jing and the Beginnings of Taoism, by Barbara Hendrischke, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2006
To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth, a Translation and Study of Ge Hong’s Traditions of Divine Transcendents, Robert Ford Campany, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2002
Voyager online
for travellers of the imagination
Booklovers of science fiction and fantasy have a new destination! Voyager Online has the latest science fiction and fantasy releases, previews of upcoming titles, book extracts, author information and weekly competitions. It also features exclusive contributions from some of the world’s top sci-fi and fantasy authors.