I know that lesbians in Taiwan are either “T” (for tomboy) or “P” (for po), but the word tomboy in English doesn’t seem to have the connotations of sexual orientation/gender identification. Is there a word in Chinese that fits the bill?
I hear “hen xiang nan sheng” a lot. Not a noun, but I can’t remember ever hearing such.
nan2ren2po2 男人婆 is the noun. You also have the adjectives ‘hen3 nan2xing4hua4de’, literally masculinized, and zhong1xing4de or zhong1xing4hua4de (androgynous), which could both describe a girl who is not very feminine.
is it a pejorative? Would it sound weird in Chinese if one were to describe one’s own daughter as a “男人婆”?
I’m not even sure they have such a thing in this land of conformity. Dressing up in that manner here is pretty much a statement rather than just a penchant for climbing trees, isn’t it? I’m not sure there’s a term at all for a non-homosexual tomboy.
Dragonbabe was a real tomboy as a kid (in dress and behavior and still doesn’t wear dresses or like pink or Hello Kitty), and she was described as a 男人婆 as a kid. To my ears, that’s a compliment, but I’ve always been attracted to tomboys. I’m not sure to what extent some (traditional) people would consider it pejorative though; I think it is. I’ll ask her.
Well see, that’s what I mean. I mean it in a “Pippi Longstocking” sense of the word: tree-climbing, mischievous, athletic, etc. as opposed to “girlish” qualities like well-mannered, obedient, demure, etc. Clothing style/hairstyle doesn’t enter into it at all - it’s more of a personality thing.
Dragonbabe confirms that it’s usually slightly pejorative, and you would not say it about someone’s daughter in front of them. “Basically it means that a girl isn’t behaving like a girl, and is somewhat troublesome like a boy.”
what about the very many young women who dress in a boy style?
You can describe her as 男子氣 (manly, masculine).
Xiao Li my Beijing sweetheart’s nickname was 假小子 jia xiaozi (pretend boy) but I don’t know whether it’s a known expression in Taiwan. An image search for the term turns up pictures like this:
