Lost in Translation - Cantonese vs English Subtitles

Cantonese movies are always lost in translation. While watching a Hong Kong crime thriller with my western friends, there is a scene between two bar brawlers. “Go Away!” the subtitles cleanly state but Cantonese slang is quite clear, “I’ll fuck your thousand year old mother’s urine-stinking cunt to death, you bastard!” They have no idea why I’m laughing out loud. When I translate it to them, they can’t help but feel cheated.

Profanity in Cantonese has always been more amusing. After all, Hong Kong’s ancestors consisted of gamblers, thieves, smugglers, tax-evaders, gangsters and escaped convicts of China. The popularity of ‘Bus Uncle’, a profane, utterly demented man on a bus shows just how funny the Cantonese can be.

The Cantonese are an uncouth bunch. We are known as the ‘southern barbarians’ to the Mainland Chinese. Swearing just isn’t the same in frilly, Mandarin tones. Where else can you say, “Fuck eight generations of your ancestors!” or “I’ll pull your eyes down to your ass, so you can watch me kick the shit out of you!”