Fuck in China

Ma de in China: “fuck” in China

妈的 (māde) is short for [WTD?!|他妈的 (tāmāde)]. Lu Xun, the father of modern Chinese literature, once honored the phrase as China’s “national swearword” [zh]]. Literally meaning “his mother's,” The term is a versatile expletive roughly equivalent to "damn" or "fuck” in English.

The pinyin used to transcribe the term closely resembles the first word on the country of origin label so globally ubiquitous in the years that followed China's economic reform.

Ma de in China is used by netizens to express disgust at something the Chinese government has done. For example someone may post a comment on their microblog that a certain website has been blocked, and someone will respond in the comment section, “Ma de in China!.” Or someone will say sarcastically that the SB Conference (World Expo) was “Ma de in China!”

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