侮辱 Insult

What a topic you say, but I was just thinking about this tonight. 外在: In the West and especially in the United States 美國 any mention of a person's physical features is considered an insult提出外表容易得罪人家. We don't dare talk about about anything relating to a person's race. But then again we don't talk about someone's weight or their hair or other aspects of the appearance for fear of offending the person. But appearance matters a lot in the U.S. in how we are actually treated by others.

By contrast, physical features are commonly talked about in Chinese culture. It is not an insult to comment on someone's weight, their hair or even their skin color. There are common nicknames for people that would be considered quite insulting in Western culture. 燒餅頭 'Bean cake head,' 'darky' and even 'Fat Fat' 肥肥 are quite ok. That is why I can stock up on my tubes of "White Man" Toothpaste in Taiwan whenever I need it, but would be hard pressed to find a Western manufacturer who would select this same brand name. But my observation is that, despite open talk about physical appearance, it doesn't matter as much in how someone is treated in Chinese culture as in American culture.

內在: With personality, the roles are reversed. This is where the Chinese are more sensitive than Americans. In some parts of America, "hey stupid," just means "hi." It certainly is ok for newspapers to comment on someone's personality, more so than to comment on their apperance. In Chinese culture, it is not acceptable to comment negatively on someone's character. That is why my wife was so insulted when a neighbor said she was stupid like a pig 笨豬 when she was little. It didn't seem insulting to me and I told her that pigs seemed quite smart, but somehow she wasn't buying it. It would be the same insult as someone saying a little girl in the West was as "fat as a pig."