Blowing Water | Why Hong Kong police group’s use of word ‘cockroach’ to condemn protesters is both baffling and depressing
- Taking cue from comedy king Stephen Chow, siu keung, or ‘little power’, became a slang name for cockroaches and a term of endearment
Local Cantonese slang phrases constantly change meaning over time, sometimes so quickly and drastically that they might mean the opposite of their original forms or even evolve into something totally different or unrecognisable.
But not many phrases have undergone such a dramatic change as the much-revered local slang term siu keung – which is synonymous with cockroach. Siu keung literally means “little power” and Keung is also a common Chinese first name.
The term was coined by none other than Hong Kong’s king of comedy Stephen Chow Sing-chi nearly three decades ago. Chow is famous for creating the unique mo lei tau comedy, which means “nonsense humour”.
Mo lei tau emphasises witty wordplay that consequently creates comedic effects.
In the 1993 film Flirting Scholar, Chow called a cockroach, which he accidentally crushed to death, “Siu Keung” as he pretended it was his pet. The term soon became a replacement word for cockroach in Chinese-speaking communities the world over.
