It doesn't take much time spent in Beijing's traffic snarls or neighbourhood disagreements to discover that capital residents have mouths at least as dirty as the air. In fact, it is safe to say that the city's way with words is one of its defining characteristics. It doesn't take long for even the most clean-cut new arrivals to cuss in chorus with the locals.
In particular, the city has a fascination with the predictable female anatomical regions, and those words tend to be used with vigour in contexts ranging from anger to celebration. Putonghua may not be known for its pliability, but Beijingers have proven deft at tweaking their native tongue in the name of not only insults, but also of plaudits.
In the wake of foul-mouthed spectators at soccer games and a snooker championship, the city has tried to crack down. But it's not working, and many more campaigns are needed before Beijing's potty-mouths are in any way cleaned up.
Beijingers have a way with words, which makes the torrent of cursing more than the sum of its parts. In fact, the habit is somehow comforting once one is accustomed to it, weaving a special atmosphere in the capital. Beijing, in short, wouldn't be Beijing without its wicked way with words. It's on returning to the city after time away that I'm most comforted by the colourful invectives thrown around town by cabbies, friends and strangers alike.
In our endless rivalry with Shanghai, Beijingers' tongues have a certain edge over our southern cousins. We already have a harsher-sounding language. Shanghainese call their city 'Sang-hai', dropping the harder sounds of the 'h' (ditto for 'zh' and 'ch' words) in favour of a smoother - and, one might say, emasculated - version of the language.
But Beijingers revel in those hard sounds, rarely letting their tongues drop from the roofs of their mouths. This creates a beefed-up speech that lends itself to (or, you might say, screams out for) the use of colourful expressions. Add to the already thick accent the 'r' sound - which makes its appearance in defiance of the laws of language, common sense and even physics - and it's hard to imagine a clean Beijing dialect.
