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her weird-Yoga-pose album. Image from HKGolden.</figcaption></figure><p id="ec2a">Janice Vidal (衛蘭) is the elder of the Vidal twins who are both singers. The singers have great voices (they are identical twins and so they basically have the same voice, but their styles are different).</p><p id="315c">Having great voices doesn’t mean they have great careers. Before the era of body awareness, nearly everybody believed that girls should be lean to be good-looking. (Anything about the boys? I didn’t see.)</p><div id="4b51"><pre>Another notable victim <span class="hljs-keyword">in</span> <span class="hljs-keyword">this</span> era was Joyce Cheng.</pre></div><p id="a457">Jill (衛詩), the younger Vidal twins, was caught taking drugs in 2009, and her career doomed. She came back as a singer in 2015, but her fame couldn’t catch up with the elder sister.</p><p id="fa1b">Janice’s body shape changed occasionally: sometimes thin, sometimes fat. The paparazzi were a bit concerned and asked her then boss, Leon Lai.</p><p id="eda3">And the King of Quotes never disappoints:</p><p id="2a7a" type="7">I’d never say I like her being plump, but I don't really find it unpleasant. As a friend, I'd tell her subtly. Just when I had a job for a scooter ad with her, she was fatter than a motorbike. How could we face the client? So I told her, “You look well bigger than the scooter.”</p><p id="854c" type="7">— Anthony’s bad translation to Leon Lai’s quote</p><p id="ba56">“She was fatter than a motorbike.” Huh? How not when you look from the front? What’s more, Hongkongers usually compare a plump person with a pig, and so “fatter than a pig (肥過隻豬, Jyutping: <i>fe

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i4 gwo3 zek3 zyu1</i>)” is a common expression to talk about an overweight person.</p><p id="4e78">But “fatter than a motorbike (肥過電單車, Jyutping: f<i>ei4 gwo3 din6 daan1 ce1</i>)” has since become a way to tell people they are a bit too fat. Or a way of mocking the singer.</p><p id="0739">Janice M. Vidal becomes Janice Motorbike Vidal?</p><p id="77b9">Oh. <b>STOP BODY-SHAMING ANYBODY!!!</b></p><div id="55f8" class="link-block"> <a href="https://merryanthony.medium.com/hong-kong-english-cantonese-collection-f41ce1e0565"> <div> <div> <h2>Hong Kong English/Cantonese: Collection</h2> <div><h3>This is a contents page for all my articles regarding Cantonese slangs, which were written in English.</h3></div> <div><p>merryanthony.medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*-D1rViM8iJcTcsr4.JPG)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><p id="d473">Reference:</p><div id="fae8" class="link-block"> <a href="https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/entertainment/20140522/00282_002.html"> <div> <div> <h2>黎明拋金句：肥過電單車</h2> <div><h3>Edit description</h3></div> <div><p>orientaldaily.on.cc</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*Et6J5mJebo7q4cVa)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

Photo by Anastasiia Tarasova on Unsplash

Hong Kong English/Cantonese (XXVII)

Fatter Than…What??

How can a person not?

I ought to tell you that one person contributes a lot in making popular phrases in Hong Kong. (But I’m going to introduce one of those for the first time in 27 articles)

This person is a divo: Leon Lai. The Peking-born singer moved to Hong Kong with his family when he was young, and he had education in Hong Kong and the UK. He started his artistic career in the 1980s and he became one of the “4 Heavenly Kings (四大天王)” of the 90s. Since the 2000s, he started a record production company with a businessman. He since has artists under his name.

However, he is popular among the young generations mainly not by his songs. He gets popular because of his quotes. He is “crowned” the “King of Quotes” since the 90s, for the reason that people occasionally have a “huh?” moment when he answers something he gets asked.

He has got so many quotes all these years but I’m going to tell you just one for now. So I have to talk about an artist formerly under his management.

Janice Vidal and her weird-Yoga-pose album. Image from HKGolden.

Janice Vidal (衛蘭) is the elder of the Vidal twins who are both singers. The singers have great voices (they are identical twins and so they basically have the same voice, but their styles are different).

Having great voices doesn’t mean they have great careers. Before the era of body awareness, nearly everybody believed that girls should be lean to be good-looking. (Anything about the boys? I didn’t see.)

Another notable victim in this era was Joyce Cheng.

Jill (衛詩), the younger Vidal twins, was caught taking drugs in 2009, and her career doomed. She came back as a singer in 2015, but her fame couldn’t catch up with the elder sister.

Janice’s body shape changed occasionally: sometimes thin, sometimes fat. The paparazzi were a bit concerned and asked her then boss, Leon Lai.

And the King of Quotes never disappoints:

I’d never say I like her being plump, but I don't really find it unpleasant. As a friend, I'd tell her subtly. Just when I had a job for a scooter ad with her, she was fatter than a motorbike. How could we face the client? So I told her, “You look well bigger than the scooter.”

— Anthony’s bad translation to Leon Lai’s quote

“She was fatter than a motorbike.” Huh? How not when you look from the front? What’s more, Hongkongers usually compare a plump person with a pig, and so “fatter than a pig (肥過隻豬, Jyutping: fei4 gwo3 zek3 zyu1)” is a common expression to talk about an overweight person.

But “fatter than a motorbike (肥過電單車, Jyutping: fei4 gwo3 din6 daan1 ce1)” has since become a way to tell people they are a bit too fat. Or a way of mocking the singer.

Janice M. Vidal becomes Janice Motorbike Vidal?

Oh. STOP BODY-SHAMING ANYBODY!!!

Reference:

Hong Kong
Hong Kong Cantonese
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