We're now on the 16th week of Untranslatable Words and this time we're moving to Asia, to big China! We're talking about an interesting term that tells us a lot about this country.
This week's word is the Cantonese: gagung.
Gif by Wordstuck
gagung
I find this word interesting because it tells us a bit of the Chinese culture of how important is for them the family structure in society I think. Also taking into account that this isn't a nice term, I think it also talks about how serious the population control problem is in there.
gagung literally means ‘bare sticks’ or ‘bare branches’ and refers to men who have little chance to get married or start families due to China’s one-child policy and its results: an excess of marriageable males as compared to females.*
This is another word that is included in Christopher Moore's In Other Words, another expression that, as he says, can offer unique insight to their own culture. According to him, “This sad term, which means ‘bare sticks’ or ‘bare branches’, refers to men who are unlikely to marry or to have families because of the skewed sex ratios.” *
Now, I can't help but think why they associate bare branches with 'unlikely to marry' men, I guess leaves-full branches are the men who get a woman, therefore a family, and not only are accepted as correct men in society but also have the opportunity to leave behind something apart from just a corpse.
I think for overall eastern cultures there's a undeniable relationship between men and nature, and they don't see men as separate and different from the natural world, but just as a one class of living beings, part of nature.* According to Daoist beliefs, man is a crucial component of the natural world and is advised to follow the flow of nature’s rhythms.*
But there's also something that makes some noise in my head, and that is just the pure existance of such a poignant term, as Moore says, a very sad one. This word is just a social consequence of this policy, a very controversial one, critizied mostly outside China. This policy was part of a program designed to control the size of the rapidly growing population of China, and according to a scholar, "The one-child limit is too extreme. It violates nature's law and, in the long run, this will lead to mother nature's revenge.", a very raw and stunning comment in my opinion. *
The skewed sex ratio is caused by a traditional preference for baby boys over girls which led to a long-term disparity: more males than females, and there's the concern about the potential social instability this can cause, the ton of young men "who won't be able to find brides and may turn to kidnapping women, sex trafficking, other forms of crime or social unrest"; and in the best cases of course courtship-motivated emigration. *
According to the Guardian, when the two-child policy was introduced in 2016, most of her respondents were in what should have been the “second spring” of their careers, with the raising of their first child already behind them, with seniority and more bargaining power at work. Many were devastated rather than overjoyed by the new policy. This event had such impact that for many families, the pressure to help their child compete is the main reason for having just the one, and this of course tells us even more about China's culture.
What do you think? Do you think the one-child policy was good for China's competing culture despite the skewed sex ratio issue? Please feel free to let me know what you think in the comments!
Thank you very much for passing by! If you have an Untranslatable Word you'd like to suggest, please don't hesitate to do so! :)
Previous Untranslatable Words:
#1: Torschlusspanik
#2: Mono no aware
#3: Rasāsvāda
#4: Cavoli riscaldati
#5: Nefelibata
#6: Sturmfrei
#7: Jootha
#8: bilita mpash
#9: resfeber
#10: Vāde mēcum
#11: sankofa
#12: annus mirabilis
#13: voorpret
#14: pikit mata
#15: ranorànilac
