Hong Kong English/Cantonese (XXVI)
Marseille vs Porto: A Football Match That Confuses the Men of Hong Kong
It’s not because of the teams’ football styles
Recently we witnessed football went home (sorry, “h” pronounced as “r” here), and Argentina’s cry of joy. Tokyo Olympics has their football matches started already, and their opening ceremony was really the essence of Japan. Most importantly, Hong Kong won an Olympic gold once again!
Supports for Team Hong Kong from the locals in various sports events seem recent and not massive, unless the news says that a Hongkongese athlete is in hope for a medal.
We usually rooted for some celebrity athletes or teams, Ian Thorpe (AUS), Lin Dan (CHN), Tom Daley (GBR), Marcel Nguyen (GER), Lee Lai Shan (HKG), Lee Wai Sze (HKG), Usain Bolt (JAM), Lee Chong Wei (MAS), Maria Sharapova (RUS), Michael Phelps (USA), the Chinese female volleyball team, the Chinese diving team, the Chinese gymnastics team are just some of them. Wow, it’s a long list.
Going back to football, Hongkongers know a lot of names of European football. When talking about this sport, Premier League and La Liga are the most commonly discussed football leagues. Whether Real Madrid or Barcelona is better, or which of the Premier League is the best is a constant battle among friends of football supporters. However, the general public don’t know much of the things happening in the local league.
At times of special leagues, such as Champions League, Euro and the World Cup, people would go euphoric and watch live on the telly to support their favourite teams in spite of the time difference in Hong Kong and the host countries which are usually in Europe.
So here I’m going to introduce you a Champions League match that gets misunderstood in Hong Kong. And I have to introduce you two European cities beforehand.
First, it’s the French city of Marseille (Cantonese: 馬賽, Jyutping: maa5 coi3).
This city by the Mediterranean is a city of art, history and football. It is the second largest city in France and has a massive metropolitan area.
As a big city in the south of France, there is convenient transport to travel between the city and the capital. It takes around three hours on a TGV to go from Paris to Marseille.
Because of its location and history, Marseille is a big tourist spot for holiday-makers. Its beautiful beaches with the view of the Mediterranean Sea must be fascinating. I heard that public security there still has big room for improvement, but I still want to visit there one day.
Then it’s another second largest city: Porto (Cantonese: 波圖, Jyutping: bo1 tou4) in Portugal.
At the northern part of Portugal, facing the Atlantic Ocean, it was an important sea port during the Age of Discovery.
As a city with also long history (longer than modern Hong Kong, though incomparable to Marseille), also beautiful beaches and also special cultures, I believe that Porto is also a big tourist spot in Portugal.
I think I ought to visit these two cities after looking at the photos.
So what Champions League match gets Hongkongese men confused?
It’s Marseille v Porto. (Cantonese: 馬賽對波圖, Jyutping: maa5 coi3 deoi3 bo1 tou4)
What sounds like a normal football match doesn’t sound normal to dirty old men of Hong Kong, and those men get disappointed (in many ways) reading this match on the news.
Let me introduce a third party, a person, an actress and a beauty pageant: Sire Ma (馬賽, currently known as 馬菀迎).
Her coincidental namesake with a city is just one of the points of confusion. Looking back to the phrase of the match, 對 means “versus”, but this word can also mean “pair” in other senses.
Also, if you remember I talked about “Double May”, you may remember that 波 can mean any spherical objects, as well as humans’ breasts. 圖 is the Chinese word for “picture” or “graph”.
Therefore, unfortunately for 馬賽對波圖, this originally only refer to a match between two European cities, but with the existence of the actress, this phrase has become ambiguous. The meanings become:
- a match between Marseille and Porto, of any sport
- a picture of Sire Ma’s boobs
I believe that this is a prime example of structural ambiguity in the Cantonese/Chinese language.
What may also be a disappointment for those dirty old men is that Sire Ma is known to not have big boobs. But I understand that people have different kinds of fetishes and fantasies. No one nowadays really mind it when you say you like specifically Sire Ma’s boobs, as long as you don’t disturb the life of the actress.
And this picture was made by DB Channel on Facebook for the Champions League match (Marseille v Porto) in 2020.
Anytime when we talk about this football match, pictures of Sire Ma would come out from the internet.
Anyway, 馬賽 or 馬菀迎 are just Sire Ma’s stage names. Her actual name is Sai’er Sima 司馬賽兒.
