{"id":8533,"date":"2023-04-30T21:42:27","date_gmt":"2023-04-30T13:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pinyin.info\/news\/?p=8533"},"modified":"2023-04-30T21:42:27","modified_gmt":"2023-04-30T13:42:27","slug":"mother-effing-noodles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pinyin.info\/news\/2023\/mother-effing-noodles\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother-effing noodles"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than sixteen years ago I wrote in some detail on how what has been dubbed China’s “national swear” (i.e., tāmā de \/ 他媽的 \/ tamade<\/em><\/a> — lit. his mother’s<\/em>) is sometimes rendered with one of the syllables bleeped out, especially the middle one (ma<\/em>). <\/p>\n

In today’s example, though, ma<\/em> has been replaced not by an X or another symbol but by its English translation: mother<\/em>, with the first syllable given in Pinyin, yielding “Ta Mother” (though, properly speaking, it should be “Ta Mother’s”; and that singular for “noodle” is a bit odd too). <\/p>\n

I spotted the Ta Mother Noodle store<\/a> in Xindian, Taiwan, from a bus about a week ago. I wasn’t able to get a good photo before the bus rounded a corner, so I’m making do with one from Google Street View. According to Google, the store has closed permanently; but at least for now, its signage lives on. <\/p>\n