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Playing badminton is what I’d consider a picnic or summer barbecue style game. A game of fun and laughter. However, here in competitive Wuhan, it’s the real deal.

Last Friday, I luckily received the day off because my 2nd graders were granted a lovely trip to a military training base, I think. Around noon, I get a message from Grace - noted name from one of my raps about how I couldn’t get a date with her - asking if I wanted to play badminton. I asked where because I figured the options were our school and the nearby park. “25 minutes on the 707,” she said and I began questioning the intensity of this game while I prepared my cutoff shorts for play.

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Xin liao ni de xie. This is a phrase that pays in Wuhan. I’m not exactly sure of its proper usage, but its a fun one to say because when you say it, it sounds like you have dropped out many parts. It’s meaning, “You’re ridiculous” and is not exactly a compliment or an insult. Actually, I think it may be an insult, but I don’t use it as one.

It is also the chorus to a Wu Han Hua (local dialect of Mandarin) rap song. The video is below. All I know she is saying in the chorus is “You’re ridiculous. You’re face is red like a tomato.”

And it is example time:

Linda: (Bunch of fast, unintelligible Chinese)
Me: “Shenme?”
Linda: “You don’t get my meaning. Ni shi sao.”
Lee: “Wo bu shi sao. Ni er bai wu.”
Linda: “Ni er bai wu.”
Lee: “Xin liao ni de xie.”

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