One Chinese word that’s guaranteed to make my husband laugh is sāo (骚). Most Chinese-English dictionaries translate the meaning he’s thinking of as “flirty” or “coquettish” — words that don’t come close to describing what’s really on his mind.
I’ll never forget that first apartment John and I rented in Cleveland, an apartment that schooled me in the true meaning of sāo.
One afternoon, while in the bedroom, I suddenly heard the unmistakable moaning through a heating vent. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!” she screamed, a phrase that rose in volume with every creak and bounce of their bed. I couldn’t believe the show from my first-floor neighbors — either because it had been years since I lived in the US, or perhaps because all of my previous apartment or dormitory-style buildings had much thicker walls. Of course, I couldn’t help but tell John, who smirked when he finally heard the girl’s screams. Not long after, he gave the two girls downstairs a new nickname — sāo qīngnián (骚青年). Qingnian means youth or young person. But sāo, as I came to discover, is also a way to describe people who are more uninhibited when it comes to sex. Continue reading “On Sex In The US, and How My Husband Taught Me the Word “Sao””