Guide to Chinese BL Terms
Feb. 1st, 2019 05:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serenityreview A guide made mostly for my own amusement but I hope this helps someone who wants to read Chinese BL novels.
Chinese BL borrows a lot of terms from Japanese BL so you are gonna see some overlap. Also some of these terms are not limited to just BL but are general terms used online.
功 - seme - the one who tops
受 - uke - the bottom
腐女/腐男 - fujoshi/fudanshi - lit. rotten girl/rotten boy - a term indicating a yaoi (sometimes yuri) fangirl/fanboy. I've also seen the term 腐民 (lit. rotten citizen) used as a general term for fans of BL/GL.
腐剧 - lit. rotten show - BL TV shows or movies will be labeled with term.
耽美 - it means something akin to single beauty, I usually see this term used to indicate BL novels.
BL - boy's love - this is pretty self explanatory
百合 - lit. lily - yuri - term borrow from Japan to indicate GL
清水 - lit. clear water - indicating a fic that's without explicit sexual content
虐 - lit. oppressive - used to indicate angst/a sad plot/characters suffering
甜 - lit. - used to indicate cute and fluffy fics
HE - stands for happy ending
BE - stands for bad ending
肉/车 - lit. meat/car - indicating a fic that contains explicit sexual content
互功 - lit. mutual seme - a term used for a pairing where both characters can be the seme and usually switch roles during sex
反功 - lit. counter seme - a term used for when the uke wants to top his seme
A lot of Chinese BL novels will advertise the kind of seme & uke pairing that's in the novel in the form of Descriptor Seme x Descriptors Uke. Thus a lot of characters falls into archetypes or cliches. I will list some these descriptor here.
傲娇 - tsundere - a character that runs hot and cold, especially when facing some one they like
病娇 - yandere - a character that has been driven insane by love or obsession, willing to do anything to be with their love
年下- lit. year under - in other words younger in age, I usually see this term used to indicate a seme who's younger than their uke
高冷- lit high cold - a term used to describe a character that's stoic and hard to approach, gives off a cold aura
呆萌- lit stupid moe - a ditz, a character that's not very bright but very moe or cute
女王- lit queen - similar to a tsundere but without a lot of dere
忠犬- lit loyal dog - a character that's very loyal to their lover, will not cheat or abandon their love
霸道总裁- lit overbearing executive - an archetype that's popular in soap operas describes a forceful character who a CEO or another form of higher up in a company
富二代- lit rich second generation - a term used to describe a person with rich parents, with similar connotations to a trust-fund baby in North America
高富帅- lit tall, rich, handsome - basically the Chinese version of tall, dark and handsome, used to describe the ideal guy.
傻白甜- lit stupid, white, sweet - a character that's naive, sweet and a bit dumb, this is a popular archetype in soap operas as well
腹黑 - lit stomach black - a character who looks kind on the surface but is really cunning and deceitful.
渣男 - lit dregs man - a term used online for men who are irresponsible in their romantic relationships such as toying with their partner's emotions or cheating on them
Here I'm going to list some general terms relating to romance/ romantic relationships.
男朋友 - boyfriend
情人/爱人 - both means lover
老公 - lit husband, you'll see a lot of uke call their semes this, probably because 公 is a homophone for 功
媳妇 - lit wife, you'll see a lot of semes refer to their ukes as this
吃醋 - lit eat vinegar - this is a term that is used to indicate romantic jealous, a character that gets jealous easily may be referred to as a 醋王 lit vinegar king
告白 - confession
谈恋爱 - lit. talk love - to be in/have a love affair
我爱你 - I love you.
我喜欢你 - I like you.
约会 - a date
情敌 - love enemy, rival in love
同性恋 - homosexuality/homosexuals
基 - slang for gay
同志 - lit. comrade - slang for homosexuals
直男 - lit straight man - a term for straight guys
弯的 - lit bent - a term created in contrast to the straight guys, a bent guy is a gay guy
双的 - lit double - slang for bisexuals
Then just some random other terms you might come across in Chinese BL novels.
发小 - regional slang for a childhood friend who's grown up along side you and still remains friends in adulthood
闺蜜- a term referring to female friends with whom you can talk about anything with and will keep your secrets
哥哥 - older brother, it's what you can call a male of your generation but is older than you even if you aren't related
弟弟 - younger brother, it's what you can call a male of your generation but is younger than you even if you aren't related
姐姐- older sister, it's what you can call a female of your generation but is older than you even if you aren't related
妹妹- younger sister, it's what you can call a female of your generation but is older than you even if you aren't related.
父亲/爸爸 - father/dad
母亲/妈妈 - mother/mom
背黑锅 - lit. back black pot - slang mean being a scapegoat
And that's all for now, I will add more if I think of more.
Chinese BL borrows a lot of terms from Japanese BL so you are gonna see some overlap. Also some of these terms are not limited to just BL but are general terms used online.
功 - seme - the one who tops
受 - uke - the bottom
腐女/腐男 - fujoshi/fudanshi - lit. rotten girl/rotten boy - a term indicating a yaoi (sometimes yuri) fangirl/fanboy. I've also seen the term 腐民 (lit. rotten citizen) used as a general term for fans of BL/GL.
腐剧 - lit. rotten show - BL TV shows or movies will be labeled with term.
耽美 - it means something akin to single beauty, I usually see this term used to indicate BL novels.
BL - boy's love - this is pretty self explanatory
百合 - lit. lily - yuri - term borrow from Japan to indicate GL
清水 - lit. clear water - indicating a fic that's without explicit sexual content
虐 - lit. oppressive - used to indicate angst/a sad plot/characters suffering
甜 - lit. - used to indicate cute and fluffy fics
HE - stands for happy ending
BE - stands for bad ending
肉/车 - lit. meat/car - indicating a fic that contains explicit sexual content
互功 - lit. mutual seme - a term used for a pairing where both characters can be the seme and usually switch roles during sex
反功 - lit. counter seme - a term used for when the uke wants to top his seme
A lot of Chinese BL novels will advertise the kind of seme & uke pairing that's in the novel in the form of Descriptor Seme x Descriptors Uke. Thus a lot of characters falls into archetypes or cliches. I will list some these descriptor here.
傲娇 - tsundere - a character that runs hot and cold, especially when facing some one they like
病娇 - yandere - a character that has been driven insane by love or obsession, willing to do anything to be with their love
年下- lit. year under - in other words younger in age, I usually see this term used to indicate a seme who's younger than their uke
高冷- lit high cold - a term used to describe a character that's stoic and hard to approach, gives off a cold aura
呆萌- lit stupid moe - a ditz, a character that's not very bright but very moe or cute
女王- lit queen - similar to a tsundere but without a lot of dere
忠犬- lit loyal dog - a character that's very loyal to their lover, will not cheat or abandon their love
霸道总裁- lit overbearing executive - an archetype that's popular in soap operas describes a forceful character who a CEO or another form of higher up in a company
富二代- lit rich second generation - a term used to describe a person with rich parents, with similar connotations to a trust-fund baby in North America
高富帅- lit tall, rich, handsome - basically the Chinese version of tall, dark and handsome, used to describe the ideal guy.
傻白甜- lit stupid, white, sweet - a character that's naive, sweet and a bit dumb, this is a popular archetype in soap operas as well
腹黑 - lit stomach black - a character who looks kind on the surface but is really cunning and deceitful.
渣男 - lit dregs man - a term used online for men who are irresponsible in their romantic relationships such as toying with their partner's emotions or cheating on them
Here I'm going to list some general terms relating to romance/ romantic relationships.
男朋友 - boyfriend
情人/爱人 - both means lover
老公 - lit husband, you'll see a lot of uke call their semes this, probably because 公 is a homophone for 功
媳妇 - lit wife, you'll see a lot of semes refer to their ukes as this
吃醋 - lit eat vinegar - this is a term that is used to indicate romantic jealous, a character that gets jealous easily may be referred to as a 醋王 lit vinegar king
告白 - confession
谈恋爱 - lit. talk love - to be in/have a love affair
我爱你 - I love you.
我喜欢你 - I like you.
约会 - a date
情敌 - love enemy, rival in love
同性恋 - homosexuality/homosexuals
基 - slang for gay
同志 - lit. comrade - slang for homosexuals
直男 - lit straight man - a term for straight guys
弯的 - lit bent - a term created in contrast to the straight guys, a bent guy is a gay guy
双的 - lit double - slang for bisexuals
Then just some random other terms you might come across in Chinese BL novels.
发小 - regional slang for a childhood friend who's grown up along side you and still remains friends in adulthood
闺蜜- a term referring to female friends with whom you can talk about anything with and will keep your secrets
哥哥 - older brother, it's what you can call a male of your generation but is older than you even if you aren't related
弟弟 - younger brother, it's what you can call a male of your generation but is younger than you even if you aren't related
姐姐- older sister, it's what you can call a female of your generation but is older than you even if you aren't related
妹妹- younger sister, it's what you can call a female of your generation but is older than you even if you aren't related.
父亲/爸爸 - father/dad
母亲/妈妈 - mother/mom
背黑锅 - lit. back black pot - slang mean being a scapegoat
And that's all for now, I will add more if I think of more.
