What does 北人豪邁 南人風流 actually mean??

[keith]

What does 北人豪邁 南人風流 actually mean??

[galitonwu]

北方人和南方人不同的性格特点。

请问在你们的国家也会有这种现象吗？

[Guest Yau]

It's a rough way to divide a vast chinese population into two: 南人(southern people), 北人(northern people). This usage was more common in the past.

南人 is mainly represented by people living around Hokkien an Canton, while 北人 actually refers to people living in Dongbei (東北) region.

There's an inaccurate but widespread impression that northern chinese is more strong, brave, generous with their money, but possbily impolite and talked loudly. (it may be the characteristic of 豪邁)

And southern chinese is thought of being weaker and shorter, better in doing business but more penny-pinching to every dollar to spent. There's even a notorious southern idiom that outraged feminists, suggesting that "When you get rich, you should kill your wife". (well, probably you can name this attitude "風流" )

When thousands of northerners moved into the south during the civil war, the phrase "南人北相" (South People North Appearance) can often be heard. It means "you're southerner, speak pure southern language, but you share some apparent characteristic of northerners: more white, taller, and shoulders are wider, and a face looks more square. )

However, note that there's no such thing as "eastern people" or "western people" if you talk about the chinese population.

[Quest]

when I see 北人豪邁, I think of horse, beards, and wine in a bowl.

when I see 南人風流, I think of 书生, 纸折扇，诗词，and wine in a cup.

南人 is mainly represented by people living around Hokkien an Canton, while 北人 actually refers to people living in Dongbei (東北) region.

I think 南人 refers to 长江以南。

I suspect the origin of 北人，南人 was from the Southern Song period.

北人指 金国 and 蒙古, and 南人指南宋人。

[amperel]

北人豪邁 南人風流

this sounds like a qoute from some wuxia novels. do they still use these words to describe people? anyway, back to the topic. i don't think 豪邁 and 風流 have any connotation at all. if any 豪邁 conjures up an image of honest straight shooter who is uninhibited in his speech/social behivior while 風流 describes a romantic charmer who enjoys arts/life and knows how to entertaint. but, often times they are only applied to man instead of women. maybe there's where the bad associations come from. i think in modern times we should be able to change that - let's start now

[Guest Yau]

So what are the best single adjective to describe northern and southern chinese woman?

北姬風韻 南女嬌柔?

北妹肥大, 南妹瘦小?

北大姐悄 南妹妹好?

北方佳麗 南方玉人?

[skylee]

I would think that 人 covers both 男人 and 女人 ...

[amperel]

miss something earlier - i think 風流 is often applied to playboys nowadays. would one apply 風流 to women? ladies' men are often 風流潇洒, but if a woman has many lovers and "misbehave", they are 下流溅格(sluts!)... you know - kind of like how people use "assertive" to describe a man and "bitch" a woman... i know this world is cruel but i didn't write the rule!

[Quest]

or the 风流倜傥 kind.

[skylee]

I guess the OP brought up this subject because I had written 北人豪邁 南人風流 in another post. Actually I made that up (but it could be easily made up).

I would think that 風流 generally means that southerners are more refined, polished and elegant. Although the term has indeed degenerated to carry very negative connotations.

[ala]

南人 is mainly represented by people living around Hokkien an Canton, while 北人 actually refers to people living in Dongbei (東北) region.

Not quite. Dongbei wasn't part of China during the Song. And I don't think anyone from Zhejiang province, Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing (南京) will call himself 北方人. But I have had people from Guangdong refer to Shanghai as 北方, which I found quite amusing, because it's not something we identify as. Traditionally, 南人 refers to people south of the Yangtze River (长江). And the terms are not "represented" by the extremities, but mainly by the regions around the capitals: Beijing and Nanjing / Hangzhou.

[keith]

Oh.

I thought it had some complimentary or hidden negative meaning.

I have some female friends from Northern China you see and I wanted to use this on them but I thought i better check the meaning first in case they take it as an insult and I end up flying!

Anyway, I am still not too sure what it means...

Does it mean Northerners are physically better but uncultured while Southerners are superficially inferior but more educated and elegant?

[skylee]

They are just two very general descriptions. IMHO no hidden negative meanings.

For "female friends from Northern China", the very general praise/impressions can be "爽朗能幹", "高佻白皙" (but these can be applied to many girls you see ...)

[amperel]

hmmm.... now we know the "hidden agenda" as skylee says, i don't think u want to describe your girl friend as 豪邁 or 風流 - well, except maybe your girl friend is "mannish"

[keith]

hmmm.... now we know the "hidden agenda" as skylee says, i don't think u want to describe your girl friend as 豪邁 or 風流 - well, except maybe your girl friend is "mannish"

Oh I get it!

[39degN]

hehe, in fact, generally, 豪邁 and 風流 only refer to men, not women.

no offence to both sides, but i m afraid the hidden agenda is, to northern ppl, southern men are feminine, to southern ppl, northern men are barbaric.