Chinese Nicknames for Foreign Cars

[Dawei3]

Echo Huang at Quartz just wrote a really fun article about the nick names for foreign cars in China:   PORSCHE AND BMW ARE KNOWN AS “BROKEN SHOES” AND “DON’T TOUCH ME” IN CHINA  July 11, 2019  https://qz.com/quartzy/1663810/chinas-nicknames-for-foreign-cars-like-porsche-and-bmw/

 

If you have trouble accessing her article, here are some gems from her article (with her translations): 

 

Audi RS series:  西装暴徒 – a gangster in a suit – inspired by the car’s smooth look & impressive horsepower

BMW – 别摸我 – don’t touch me – based on its pinyin, bie mo wo

Bugatti Veyron 肥龙 - fat dragon

Camero - 大黄蜂 - Bumblee, its autobot character

Deesse 屌丝 - loser  - She notes that diao si is sometimes written as DS and refers to young men with mediocre looks.  

Porsche – 破鞋 – po xie - broken shoes

Porsche Panamera – 怕哪摸哪 – touch all the unwanted places

 

Echo is based in Hong Kong.  Her main focus is alternative & electric vehicles, science, technology, and social media.  I connected with her on Linkedin so I could see the articles she publishes.  Her articles use both Chinese & Western sources and she covers topics in a politically neutral way.  She's a great writer in English and does a nice job bridging the East & West.  I read her articles in English, but she often mixes Chinese into them (as in the above), so readers of this blog may also like them.  

 

If you know of other fun/interesting/strange nicknames, please post them. 

Edited July 12, 2019 at 03:36 AM by Dawei3

[889]

破鞋 of course is one of those words you want to use carefully.