街頭俚語

mad about getting overcharged， line-butted or stuck in interminable rush hour traffic one too many times? Well now you can express your indignation with a fashionable Chinese phrase:“坑爹呢?!” (K8ngdi8 ne?!): “Are you cheating me?!” 坑 (k8ng) originally means “hole” (as in one that a cheat has dug as a trap)， but in the dialect of northwest China it can be used as the verb “to defraud.”爹 (di8)， meanwhile， is another way of saying 老子 (l2ozi)， a colloquial word meaning “myself.” 坑爹， then， is similar to other expressions like 坑我 (k8ng w6) or 坑人 (k8ng r9n)， all of which refer to trapping or tricking someone. The phrase can be used both to condemn someone for their dishonesty and as a means of a self-deprecation after making a fool of oneself. For instance， if during an online game one of the team members runs away unexpectedly， others may loudly complain， “坑爹呢這是” (K8ngdi8 ne zh-sh#)， “Are you tricking me?” Or if an interestinglooking title lures you into clicking on a misleading ad， you might curse “這標題也太坑爹了吧！” (Zh- bi`ot! y0 t3i k8ngdi8 le ba!)， “That title is so tricky!”

Worst of all， of course， are the times that you scam yourself—as anyone who’s ever driven in Beijing on a Friday evening knows: “在北京開車太坑爹了” (Z3i B0ij~ng k`ich8 t3i k8ngdi8 le)—“Driving in Beijing is like shooting yourself in the foot!” - hu yijun (胡逸君)