Colour of the Truth
Besides being the title of a 2003 Wong Jing film that Tom Cruise wanted to remake, it suits this article because I want to explore the literally colourful world of Cantonese slang. Back to Mr. Cruise, it was reported in August 2004 that he purchased the rights to remake it. However, he was only going to produce it for his production company with Paula Wagner. This news item used to be easily found on English search engines but you can only find it on Chinese webpages where Colour of the Truth is known in its original language as Black and White Forest.
Black and White can mean many things. Besides being a euphemism for the Yin-Yang symbol, it can be a slang term which refers to a particular type of dessert - sesame and sweet tofu. Red and white, on the other hand, is red bean and sweet tofu. Being a black and white swan is to nag all day and all night. Black, by itself, can mean cursed. A mistress can be called a black market wife. A gloomy face can be called a black face. If you have bad luck then you can be described as either blacker than an ink box or blacker than wok crust. Money laundering is described as black money whereas a person who controls everything is a black hand behind the scenes. If somebody benefits by their wrongdoing as another person gets the blame then the situation is described as the black dog gets to eat while the white dog gets the punishment.
In the world of Cantonese slang, being white isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. A white nose guy can be either a failed womaniser or someone who fails an examination. A white horse is an ignoramus. Even a prince on a white horse is a curate’s egg. On one hand, it can be someone who is a saviour or a police motorcyclist. It can also be a backhanded compliment that describes a man who unexpectedly wins the love of a woman. Another catch-22 situation is if you have white hands. It can mean that you start from nothing like having a clean record, but it can also mean to be a first-timer in prison. The best double-edged sword is a white tiger i.e. a woman with no pubic hair but that’s only a turn-on depending on her face. Similarly, fluorescent lights describe white or pale legs.
White melon seed is code for a tranquiliser called triazolam, but then so is blue melon seed. White lips refers to a scared face or a corpse. On a similar note, to slaughter a white crane means to vomit. A white paper fan refers to an object than a fanatic, more specifically - it refers to what is held by a senior Triad official who is in the position of being an advisor. The one who can chill and spill. The code number associated with this rank is 415. This lends itself to a good pun about those who embrace the 420 culture. Imagine a weed-smoking person who irks a 415 to the extent that they experience the ire of a 426. This is the code number of an enforcer in Triad society. Also known as a red pole, it brings to mind why actor Bolo Yeung was in hot demand from his affiliation with gangster/actor Michael Chan Wai-Man, and his overall association with shady types.
There was a 1977 film by Golden Harvest called Ironside 426. Besides the title conjuring up the memory of an American film that Bruce Lee had appeared in, it would have made sense to cast Bolo in it because he later appeared in a 1978 Golden Harvest film which shared enough cast and crew members to give the impression that they were made back to back. Titled Mr. Big, the cast includes Jason Pai Piao, Max Lee Chiu-Chun, Choi Fai, Gam Yam, Kwan Yan, Ng Kit-Keung, Yat Boon-Chai, Fung Yun-Chuen, Lai Sau-Kit, Tsang Choh-Lam and Cheung Chok-Chow. Behind the scenes, we have director Lam Kwok-Cheung, screenwriter Lee Wing-Cheung, producer Raymond Chow, and Louis Sit Chi-Hung being involved with the planning. Perhaps casting Bolo Yeung in Ironside 426 would have been too obvious of an in-joke.
Despite pink being in tandem with femininity and passion along with it being seen as the colour of genitalia, red is seen by the Chinese as the most intense of colours. In the eyes of the Chinese, it’s red instead of green that is associated with envy. A red envelope is a wedding invitation. On a superficial level, a popular celebrity is known as a red person while lucky money is referred to as red pocket. Red coat fish is a hundred dollar note. On a vulgar level, sewage water is known as salty red bean congee. Likewise, a winter melon tofu can describe a crisis or a death. To wear red shoes is to have sex with the wife or girlfriend of either a friend or one’s Triad brother. Imagine what the Hong Kong audience thought when Tom Hanks starred in a 1985 comedic thriller called The Man with One Red Shoe.
Back to the Triads, attending a Triad judicial hearing is to be in the red hall. Red paint refers to petrol sold on the black market to avoid tax whereas red chicken is the nickname for a Hong Kong island taxi. Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s countryside, the New Territories, have green taxis. Thinking about traffic signs, you can ironically stop in the New Territories but you’re constantly on the go in Hong Kong. In Mark Kermode’s 2003 book about Frank Darabont’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption, he mentioned that Morgan Freeman’s character was originally a middle-aged Irish man with greying red hair. Changing the ethnicity of Ellis Redding takes away the significance of his nickname being red. Then again, Cantonese custom dictates that a red foreigner describes a Native American.
A green crab is a ten dollar note. A green head boy is either a young unmarried man or a young male virgin. I guess they understand what a greenhorn is. Wearing a green hat is being a cuckold. Cutting green grain is leaving a gambling game early with one’s winnings. Perhaps it’s a gambler’s way of calling you chicken by implying that you’re premature in your departure. If you have sesame and green bean then you have something that is insignificant. Conversely, a little green bean is a tranquilizer called librium. You can get equally mixed signals with blue. A blue lantern is code for a police vehicle, but hanging the blue lantern means to be a new recruit who has not been formally accepted into a Triad society but you have a protector who is a member. Furthermore, a blue shield refers to the Public Security Bureau police in Mainland China. Cop actor Danny Lee starred in a 1991 film called Red Shield.
As you can imagine with Chinese people, yellow is a tricky colour to use. To stir-fry a yellow cow is to scalp tickets. To cut off the chicken’s head and burn the yellow paper means to swear an oath or become sworn brothers (especially in Triad culture). Contrastingly, if you bring a new born baby in for the first time or if you come home from prison, you can have a purification ceremony in which someone steps over a basin with burning spells written on strips of yellow paper. The Chinese are known for being the most superstitious. To catch a yellow-legged chicken is to catch someone having illicit sex, or to arrange a honey trap in which someone is blackmailed after being lured into having sex. Generally, yellow is a sleazy colour that can be equally ascribed to pornography or prostitution. Indeed, sweeping the yellow means clamping down on the vice trade whether it be to raid massage parlours or even gay saunas. Most ironically, a silver chicken refers to actresses who are also prostitutes (not necessarily porn stars). Speaking of silver, using bronze silver and shouting loudly means to be in the wrong and lose one’s temper when confronted.
Gold is the middle-ground between orange and yellow. An orange on the altar can mean something dried out in the shade or letting something or someone decline through neglect. If a film company literally treats deleted footage as trash instead of interest in a bank then that footage would be often thought of as a left behind orange. Ironically, the Golden Harvest film company are now known as Orange Sky Golden Harvest. The Cantonese words for “almond plus orange” are a homophone of a popular cursing expression. A goldfish is a nightclub hostess who drinks with customers but does not have sexual intercourse with them. With all the golden expressions below, you can see why becoming successful was as important to Golden Harvest founder Raymond Chow as it was for Bruce Lee.
A golden rice bowl is a highly paid job, which is why it was easy for Bruce to raise the salaries of the blue collar workers at Golden Harvest. Fishing for a golden tortoise means to look for a rich husband. Perhaps this is why Raymond Chow was Hell-bent on making those live-action versions of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. A gold finger is a police informer. Gilting gold is leaving Hong Kong for further studies abroad. “Gold pupils, fiery eyes” describes exhaustion from intense concentration. Gold mountain was the nickname affixed to San Francisco. As such, a gold mountain uncle is an old Chinese man who has lived in the United States for many years. Bruce Lee wanted to be in a Western that took place in San Francisco. His character gets beaten but his health is restored after consuming congee. In English, the film was to be called The Green Bamboo Warrior. In Chinese, it was to be called The Conqueror of the Golden Mountain. The Chinese words for bamboo and gold share the same character.
Washing hands in the golden basin means to retire or simply withdraw from a business, particularly the Triad life. A gold tower is a container for the ashes of a deceased person. A golden cow is a thousand dollar note. If teeth are used as gold, it means that the person is trustworthy. Golden lotus sisters are loyal female friends. A gold thread cat is a young white female. Easy money to be made is gold to be picked up. Unfortunately, not everything is rosy with gold. A senior Triad enforcer is a gold medal enforcer. Gold cicada sheds shell means to make a quick getaway. Before you accuse the Chinese of glorifying crime, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. A goldfish person is someone who either abducts a child or molests them. A goldfish bowl is either the stock exchange or a brothel where prostitutes wearing numbers are displayed behind a glass screen. Jackie Chan described the latter in his second memoir when recounting his days as a stuntman.
