Is being a xueba (学霸) a good or a bad thing?

[Demonic_Duck]

Whoa what a cool discussion! I have a question, is 学婊 only used against girls? or is it used against anyone?

Never heard of it before, but you'll notice here, the author has gone to the trouble of typing “Ta” instead of “他” or “她”, so I assume it can be used for either gender.

Edit: on the other hand, here the author uses “她”.

[Angelina]

Interesting. I have never heard about 学婊 before. 学婊 is probably more negative than 学霸, but its meaning depends on context. 

 

 

还有绿茶婊 

 

http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/454632128590014885.html?qbl=relate_question_3

[Demonic_Duck]

Most of the comments on those threads are about how much they hate 学婊s (I guess it's a common phenomenon then? Even if the word isn't so common...) so I'd assume it's almost universally a negative word.

[bokane]

I'm not sure I'd translate 學霸 as "teacher's pet" -- from the way i've heard it used, it seems to be a little more like "curve-wrecker" or something along those lines: a teasing but not necessarily mean way of telling someone that they make the rest of us look bad. Though then again my sample here is comprised mostly of Chinese grad students, all of them 學霸.

 

學婊 was new to me too, but I've seen 學渣 a lot - always applied to oneself, IIRC.

[Angelina]

学婊 is a 学霸 in a 学渣's clothing. 

[laurenth]

Unless I missed it, it seems nobody's mentioned that "Slow Chinese" has made a podcast about 学霸 recently. It's there that I learnt about the whole concept.