More about our friend, 牛 the cow

Perhaps, dear reader, you can help us understand the Chinese fascination with the cow / ox / bull, all of which translate into 牛 (niu). We had the huang niu from a few days ago and today I learned a slang word for "cool". Apparently, if you're cool, especially if you're writing on the web, you use the word niubi for something that is super cool. Niu bi is literally a cow's (female) nether-region. We decided "ox" or "bull" is actually cooler in English, but a bull can't have a bi, so there you have it.

If you're really stupid, you're a shabi - a stupid cow nether-region. If something is just average stupid, it's erbi - a number 2 cow nether-region. If you want to be cool and you're not, in English you're a poser. In Chinese you're a zhuangbi - a pretend cow nether-region.
As with the huang niu, we couldn't come up with an answer as to why the niu has such interesting connotations. The ox is generally thought of as strong, but being born in the year of the ox does not necessarily make you a niuren, an ultra-cool person.

The slang word niubi comes from Beijinghua - the dialect spoken in Beijing. China, as you may know, has thousands of dialects. To a student of Putonghua (mandarin), Shanghaihua is completely unintelligible to me, even after six years of living here. But the pronunciation and meaning of "bi", my teacher pointed out, is universal in most dialects. Therefore the cool?

Moo.

From Sara Naumann, About.com's Guide to China Travel, guest-blogger for Chinese Culture.