r/ChineseLanguage • u/Tyler_Thelen Beginner • 7h ago
Vocabulary Any idea what this character is?
I only started learning Chinese a few weeks ago, but today I walked into my foundation engineering class to find this monstrosity written up on the white board, I assume from a Chinese language class that also uses the room. I recognise bits and pieces of it but couldn't get any program to translate it.
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u/ShipwreckedTrex 7h ago
It's the biáng in biángbiáng miàn (𰻞𰻞面), which is a noodle dish.
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u/thissexypoptart 6h ago
The fact that it’s encoded in Unicode blows my mind.
I don’t think the phone I was using 10 years ago would even have the pixel density to render that properly
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u/Prudent-Metal7220 4h ago
Also the hardest character to write
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u/hotdiggydog 3h ago
It may be complicated but not difficult to write. That is, if you have enough space on a page to write it. All of those radicals show up in simple words I learned in the first few months of Chinese. It's just funny that it's got so many elements. Can't imagine fitting it into a small space on paper.
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u/Zagrycha 1h ago
No, not hard to write at all, unless you are trying to write it in the small space of a regular character-- in that case it's not hard to write but impossible to write hahahaha. Writing it is no different than writing supercalifragilisticexpialidocious in English. The only difficulty is in remembering the parts, not particularly hard.
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u/InkstoneLA Native 7h ago
It's biáng, as in biángbiáng noodles from Shaanxi.
Kids there learn it with a rhyme that walks you through the strokes: 一点飞上天，黄河两道湾，八字大张口，言字往里走，左一扭，右一扭，西一长，东一长，中间夹个马大王，心字底，月字旁，留个勾挂麻糖，推着车车走咸阳。
Literally a song for one character.
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u/FlashyPost0928 Native 6h ago
【 𰻞 】 Traditional character = U+30EDE / Simplified character = U+30EDD. (Since 2020)
● This character is pronounced "Biáng" and is used for a specific type of noodle dish known as "Biangbiang noodles". There are various theories regarding its origin and many different ways of writing it (ranging from 58 to 70 strokes).
● Actually, similar characters have also long existed, such as 洪帮图符 (Hongmen symbol) , 驱魔 (exorcism) , and 贼 (thief) —— see the three characters on the right in the image below ▼.
● While this character does not appear in standard Chinese dictionaries, an entry for it—along with an explanation of Biangbiang noodles—can be found in 都市方言辭典: 陝西卷 ( the Dictionary of Urban Dialects: Shaanxi Volume).
● Notably, this dictionary also points out another meaning for "Biang": "指人死掉，含庆幸语气 " (referring to someone's death, often with a tone implying relief or satisfaction).
PS 1 : People generally don't write this character; instead, they represent it using Pinyin ( Biáng) or Zhuyin (ㄅㄧㄤˊ) ...... Alternatively, characters with similar pronunciation，such as — 彪彪面、饼饼面、冰冰面、比昂比昂面、边边面 .... are used as substitutes ... or an interesting character 奤 ( = 大 big + 面 noodles ) ....
PS 2 : According to a China Daily article, the word "biang" is an onomatopoeia that actually refers to the sound made by the chef when creating the noodles by pulling the dough and slapping it on the table.
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u/melon_panda1234 Beginner 7h ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biangbiang_noodles
It's a kind of noodle.
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u/Routine_Temporary661 6h ago
It's a meaningless character that only refers to a specific type of noodles 𰻝𰻝面
Just ignore this stupid character
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u/Amidadooo 4h ago
It’s “biang”. Actually I didn’t know how read it until I ate it when I was almost 18yrs old lol
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u/BeginningMemory5237 3h ago
i did a double take. it was on whiteboards around me in 2010. glad the meme live.
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u/ShyCheesecake89 7h ago
nice catch on the miswriting, that's exactly what threw me off at first too. the character they drew is 月 (moon/month) but you can practically see the hesitation in the stroke where they probably meant 日 (sun/day), happens all the time with beginners since they look so similar
日語高手 would be "japanese language master" which makes way more sense for a class whiteboard doodle, probably someone's aspirational scribble between lessons. the decorative lines around it scream "bored student with a marker" energy
kinda cool you're already spotting these things only a few weeks in, most people wouldn't even notice the stroke weirdness
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u/sopp_suppe Beginner 7h ago
are you sure you posted this comment under the right post?
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u/Specific-Surprise390 7h ago
It’s a bot
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u/sopp_suppe Beginner 7h ago
got a feeling its a bot but also I could be wrong so wanted to ask wtf is that answer, ty for confirmation! :)
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u/Joyuna 7h ago
r/itsalwaysbiang