# What does "yu yubai" mean in Chinese? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 18, 2019, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-yu-yubai-mean-in-chinese/829786 "2019-02-18T19:52:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-yu-yubai-mean-in-chinese/829786/21 "2019-02-20T03:57:27Z")
> [@Batano](#): > > When I was trying to learn Mandarin they taught us to refer to it some way that I forget, but people looked at me funny when I used it. I finally asked someone the right way to say I speak a little Mandarin, and they told me to just say “I speak a little” (wo hue shuo?). The rest is obvious. You were probably taught to say putonghua which means standard speech, but is usually translated as Mandarin. The only time I’ve heard it used is if someone is asking or is asked if they speak putonghua or gwangdongwa (Cantonese). ---
**Author:** ![Batano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b487fb/32.png) [@Batano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batano)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-yu-yubai-mean-in-chinese/829786/22 "2019-02-20T04:04:56Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > You were probably taught to say putonghua which means standard speech, but is usually translated as Mandarin. The only time I’ve heard it used is if someone is asking or is asked if they speak putonghua or gwangdongwa (Cantonese). Yes, that was it. I always got a puzzled look. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-yu-yubai-mean-in-chinese/829786/23 "2019-02-20T04:08:54Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > And this is a complete non-sequitur: Simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese aren’t different languages, they’re just different character “glyphs” for some of the characters. And the distinction is _entirely_ orthogonal to dialect; you can represent any dialect in either system. Not true. I learned the hard way (early on watching Hong Kong movies and trying to match the traditional subtitles to what what being said) that there are man Cantonese words and phrases that can’t be directly expressed in Hanzi (at least directly as it’s spoken). I believe the same is true for Taiwanese and Hokkien as well as a number of other dialects/languages. Jump to 3:50 in this video “Cantonese vs. Mandarin” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e73btaVo868](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e73btaVo868) and Carmen and Ben illustrate how the written form of some phrases in Mandarin is jibberish in Cantonese and vice-versa. BTW, Ben is a scholar in Mandarin (speaking formal Beijing dialect) and Carmen is a native Cantonese speaker, raised in Australia (explaining her accent). I’ve never been able to figure out where she was born, but from the way she says certain Cantonese words, I’m pretty sure it’s not Hong Kong. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-yu-yubai-mean-in-chinese/829786/24 "2019-02-20T04:28:09Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > You understood me correctly: I’ve never heard that out of a Chinese person’s mouth. Certainly it’s not something my wife, my wife’s family, or my co-workers would say. Dude, maybe down under or your wife’s family, but I find this ascertation completely outside my 35 years of being a Chinese speaker. Multiple times on the ski lift this past weekend I got “oh, you speak Chinese?!?”. Forget the literally thousands of times I’ve heard a variation of “wow, you speak Chinese”. It is really really rare to hear someone say “you speak Mandarin”. When speaking Mandarin, \*most \*native speakers will say 中文（zhongwen aka language of the middle kingdom), Mainlanders also often but less commonly use 普通话 （Putonghua aka common language), Taiwanese will \*also \* but less commonly use 国语 （country language), overseas Chinese in SE Asia tend to use 华语 （huayu or language of greater china/Chinese diaspora), Chinese minority nationalities tend to use "汉语” （hanyu aka language of the Han Chinese), while written Chinese often also use "汉语” （hanyu aka spoken version of the written language aka the literary language or something like that. it’s awkward to translate.) 他妈的。当然我会说中文。我念大学是中文系。在大陆，台湾香港带了20多年。我老婆是上海人。我也会说有些上海话。我不是说一点点的普通话。So, yes, this gweiloh can speak “Chinese”. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-yu-yubai-mean-in-chinese/829786/25 "2019-02-20T04:29:51Z")
> [@Batano](#): > > A story: One time a family from China came onto my shop. The grandfather sat down while the rest looked around so I decided to use my best Mandarin on him and asked how he was doing. There was no response, and I was really embarrassed. Were they not from China? Was my Mandarin that bad? Finally I heard a loud voice from the back of the store. His son said: “he’s deaf”. After learning Japanese was n Kyushu, two things surprised me when I first moved to Tokyo. First was that I could understand the conversations between people who weren’t directly talking to me. The other was that I could talk elderly people. In Kyushu, people will use the local dialects with each other and the elderly didn’t understand standard Japanese at all. Back in the 80s then much of the business with China went through Hong Kong. There were more foreigners who were learning Cantonese back then. Now companies simply go directly into China, so more people learn Mandarin. Most of the Westerners I know who know or are learning Chinese learn Mandarin, even if they are based in Hong Kong or Guangzhou as these just isn’t a great enough advantage in learning Cantonese. I worked (in Japan) for a US manufacturer from 10 years. The regional sales office was in Singapore and there were plants in China. All the business in Hong Kong and Guangzhou was done by a distributor who localized everything so there was no need to distinguish between Mandarin and Cantonese. In that 10 years I doubt I heard those words spoken or saw them written more than a few times. In the context of this story, I’m curious about the word choice. Do you learn the language where both were taught? ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-yu-yubai-mean-in-chinese/829786/26 "2019-02-20T04:42:29Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > Divorce not finalized? 😉 Tapatalk doesn’t let me write in Chinese. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-yu-yubai-mean-in-chinese/829786/27 "2019-02-20T14:03:51Z")
I was discussing this thread with my wife (in Japanese, our common language) and she happened to read an article online about a junior high school student in Hong Kong that was disciplined for speaking Cantonese in school. Unless there are unforeseen changes, Cantonese will become less and less important. It will be interesting to see how long this change takes. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-yu-yubai-mean-in-chinese/829786/28 "2019-02-20T16:52:27Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > I was discussing this thread with my wife (in Japanese, our common language) and she happened to read an article online about a junior high school student in Hong Kong that was disciplined for speaking Cantonese in school. > > Unless there are unforeseen changes, Cantonese will become less and less important. It will be interesting to see how long this change takes. Nothing new. It was a concern leading up to the 1997 Handover and is becoming a fact. Mandarin is already more important in that it’s a more universal form of communication across Mainland China, especially for business, but Cantonese will live on as a cultural language, especially in areas outside of Hong Kong (though with regional dialects). As a business person, it can be advantageous to speak in Cantonese as it shows an interest and respect for a native speaker’s first language, possibly leading to preferential treatment. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-yu-yubai-mean-in-chinese/829786/29 "2019-02-20T17:37:40Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > Yeah, I’m guessing it’s made up, like “Bandi Blue.” I would assume any color name that requires more than one word is made up, or at least nonstandard. In English, we have very few shades that have a standardized name, like navy blue. At best, there may be a shade that is particularly well known because it is associated with a brand or sport (e.g., _rosso corsa_, UPS brown, Tiffany’s robin-egg blue, Post-It… yellow?, or British Racing Green). ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-yu-yubai-mean-in-chinese/829786/30 "2019-02-20T23:47:33Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > As a business person, it can be advantageous to speak in Cantonese as it shows an interest and respect for a native speaker’s first language, possibly leading to preferential treatment. Siri tells me there are 55 million Cantonese speakers and 905 million Mandarin speakers. You pick which one is more important. As was said up thread, in the past Cantonese developed an importance greater than the relative numbers because of the location of its speakers and this pattern continued after the PRC took over. Now that direct access is allowed, businesses are bypassing Hong Kong. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-yu-yubai-mean-in-chinese/829786/31 "2019-02-21T00:17:35Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > IAt best, there may be a shade that is particularly well known because it is associated with a brand or sport (e.g., _rosso corsa_, UPS brown, Tiffany’s robin-egg blue, Post-It… yellow?, or British Racing Green). “What can yu yubai do for you?” may be the next big catch phrase we’ll all be using! ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-yu-yubai-mean-in-chinese/829786/32 "2019-02-21T04:25:15Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > Siri tells me there are 55 million Cantonese speakers and 905 million Mandarin speakers. You pick which one is more important. > > As was said up thread, in the past Cantonese developed an importance greater than the relative numbers because of the location of its speakers and this pattern continued after the PRC took over. > > Now that direct access is allowed, businesses are bypassing Hong Kong. I suspect a good number of those Mandarin speakers are bilingual with another dialect/language as primary. Almost all the Cantonese speakers I’ve met locally, can understand Mandarin and are able to carry on brief conversations with native Mandarin speakers. Also, as you’re well aware, Taiwanese Mandarin is distinctly different from Beijing Mandarin and some terms may be unintelligible to native speakers of both. While speaking or not speaking Cantonese may not make or break a multi-million dollar deal, as I said, it shows interest and respect that may be advantageous in opening doors. As a non-native Mandarin speaker, I’m sure you’ve had instances of people being more open to helping you or even offering perks that may not be offered to a non-Mandarin speaker. This is true everyone, but in Hawaii, breaking into “da kine” (local pidgin English), can get you perks that wouldn’t be offered to the general public such as hotel, air and car rental upgrades and unlisted kama’aina (Hawaii local) discounts on other things. Years ago, I was wearing a t-shirt that said “hoitobo” which I believe is a local slang take on hoitou, but we define as greedy or piggy. The girl at Dairy Queen asked what it meant and when she served me my cone it was double the size of the one’s she gave to everyone else. She said it was because I was “hoitubo!” ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-yu-yubai-mean-in-chinese/829786/33 "2019-02-21T07:09:11Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > I suspect a good number of those Mandarin speakers are bilingual with another dialect/language as primary. Almost all the Cantonese speakers I’ve met locally, can understand Mandarin and are able to carry on brief conversations with native Mandarin speakers. Also, as you’re well aware, Taiwanese Mandarin is distinctly different from Beijing Mandarin and some terms may be unintelligible to native speakers of both. YOu would be correct that most of those Mandarin speakers are bilingual with another dialect as their “native” tounge. And that is a pretty recent change. Way back in the 1980’s before TV became ubiquitous, an awful lot of folks, especially outside of the urban areas, spoke no Mandarin nor could understand it. Heck even after 2000, it was very common to see signs in Shanghai government offices asking everyone to speak Mandarin. That said, Shanghaiese is definitely declining as the first language of people from the area. Schools no longer teach in Shanghaiese but now Mandarin. While the Mandarin in Taiwan and Beijing are clearly different, the average speaker can easily understand each other. Caveat being Beijingers that speak with a really extreme “r” sound, or are actually speaking the local Beijing dialect, which is a far cry from “broadcast mandarin”". Ditto for people in Taiwan, especially Taipei, that grow up speaking Mandarin as their first language. I’ll admit, that you can get a really horribly accented Taiwanese Mandarin, especially in Southern Taiwan, that is really hard to understand at first. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-yu-yubai-mean-in-chinese/829786/34 "2019-02-21T07:26:38Z")
**@lingyi** , my point was that back in the 70s and 80s Cantonese was relatively more important than Mandarin. Knowing any language is helpful, but for sheer numbers of Westerners studying the languages Mandarin is clearly more important now and will continue. In the business world that I’m familiar with “Mandarin” is mostly referred to as “Chinese” while “Cantonese” is called that. ---
**Author:** ![Enilno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/58f4c7/32.png) [@Enilno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enilno)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-yu-yubai-mean-in-chinese/829786/35 "2019-02-21T21:04:05Z")
Back to the OP, seems like it’s a mis-transliteration. The color option is Hao Yu Bai, 皓玉白, or bright jade white. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-yu-yubai-mean-in-chinese/829786.md?page=1)