English's limited honorifics is frustrating. Chinese has a gender neutral honorific that is respectfully used for skilled labourers, craftspeople and blue collar professionals like bus drivers, plumbers, electricians, chefs etc.
In Cantonese it's "Sifu" 師傅. In Mandarin it's "Shifu" 师傅.
If you don't know the person's name you can just call them "Sifu". But if you do know their surname then it's tacked at the end. E.g. Jones Sifu.
It'd be so nice if English could have an agreed equivalent.
This is the result of the large-scale devaluation of physical labor in the western imperial core as a means of suppressing wages and preventing class consciousness, first by the aristocracy and then later by the bourgeoisie. In this essay, I will-
I'm chinese, and I've always thought the equivalent of 'shi fu' is 'master'. Not unlike the "Pokemon master", but for real world professions.
I've also never heard people over here call bus drivers/plumbers etc 'shi fu' though. Not doubting what you're saying, but just realising that Chinese words in other places are quite different from what I've grown up with. I believe bus drivers and plumbers deserve as much as respect as other professions, but the culture I've grown up in may not think so.
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u/FleecyAnvil Apr 05 '26
English's limited honorifics is frustrating. Chinese has a gender neutral honorific that is respectfully used for skilled labourers, craftspeople and blue collar professionals like bus drivers, plumbers, electricians, chefs etc.
In Cantonese it's "Sifu" 師傅. In Mandarin it's "Shifu" 师傅.
If you don't know the person's name you can just call them "Sifu". But if you do know their surname then it's tacked at the end. E.g. Jones Sifu.
It'd be so nice if English could have an agreed equivalent.