<p>I would guess that may have simply been chi4 "赤" (red), since <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%85%B1%E5%8C%AA" rel="nofollow">赤匪</a> (red bandit) was an derogatory term used by the KMT for the communists.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-13T01:11:32.763Z
Good possibility.
Colin McLarty
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-12T22:32:56.443Z
2015-01-12T22:32:56.443Z
Spehro 'speff' Pefhany
<p>I read a very interesting book called '<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XORD7ODG2NUC&amp;pg=PA356&amp;dq=zarrow%20chee&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=rXuwVMb4G5HaaoGYgIgN&amp;redir_esc=y#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" rel="nofollow">China in War and Revolution</a>' about the period from 1900-1949 in China. I am curious about the meaning of the word 'chee' in the passage below. I don't speak Chinese (at all) and the author doesn't give the character in any case, sorry.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>After the Japanese were defeated and the civil war was under way the
  CCP faced the possibility of counter-revolution. At least in some
  areas, in spite of all attempts to soften rural elite opposition over
  the preceding years, landlords greeted early discussions of coalition
  government and a return of the Guomindang with glee. One landlord told
  one of his workers. “Heh! Still pressing us to pay grain tax. Fuck
  you. Chee! The Guomindang armies will be here in a minute. Gonna cut
  your little prick off! Chee!"</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Edit: the quote is cited to ... where it appears exactly as Zarrow rendered it, still saying 'Chee'. In Esherick's article, it's cited to <em>Guanyu Yangjiagou de tudi wenti, 1946</em>.</p>

<p>I googled <em>this</em> title and it comes up with <em>Yangjiagou de tudi wcnti” (On the land problem in Yangjiagou, 9 August 1946, Mizhi Archives, permanent juan 4.</em>
<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ib-sEZzxkb4C&amp;pg=PA84&amp;lpg=PA84&amp;dq=Guanyu+Yangjiagou+de+tudi+wenti,+1946&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=9EQWEzteqt&amp;sig=sS0e_s--cl8xXyzMDaTIZ3-Wvck&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=201KVfj5EuPR7QaVrYG4Cg&amp;ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&amp;q=Guanyu" rel="nofollow">https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ib-sEZzxkb4C&amp;pg=PA84&amp;lpg=PA84&amp;dq=Guanyu+Yangjiagou+de+tudi+wenti,+1946&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=9EQWEzteqt&amp;sig=sS0e_s--cl8xXyzMDaTIZ3-Wvck&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=201KVfj5EuPR7QaVrYG4Cg&amp;ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&amp;q=Guanyu</a> Yangjiagou de tudi wenti%2C 1946&amp;f=false</p>

<p>So, can't go much further really. Chee! I mean, Ciao!</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-10T03:03:24.437Z
Sounds like an exclamation of discontent. We have 嗤(chi) or 切(qie) in modern Chinese. The meaning and sounding are quite similar. I can't be sure unless I have the original source..
Wang Dingwei
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-10T03:49:27.530Z
Looking at that book I see this passage is quoted from a book by Jerome Grieder _Intellectuals and the state in modern China_.  And your book says "romanization modified."  I think that to figure out what Chinese word that is supposed to be, you would have to look at Greider's version.  It could be 嗤 as Wang Dingwei suggests.  But "chee" is not a standard pinyin syllable at all and 嗤 makes little sense here unless it was a "sound effect" in Chinese, of a kind not used much in English.
Colin McLarty
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-11T00:55:58.987Z
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cheebye - it looks like "chee" might be a dialectical shift for the "chou" sound in Mandarin, assuming that "cheebye" is what I think it is.:P
Master Sparkles
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-11T02:32:13.360Z
I am not sure this book would use a Chinese dialect. But I will report the web site mysmu.edu/faculty/jacklee/singlish_C.htm#chee_bye gives the definiton of "chee bye" as Singapore or Hong Kong dialect for 阴物, Mandarin yīn wù, in an obscene sense.
Colin McLarty
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-11T02:53:09.870Z
I think my point is that they're quoting people who might not have been speaking in perfect Mandarin (not to mention people from a while back). That's also interesting... I thought it was 臭(尸穴) in Mandarin
Master Sparkles
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-11T14:13:08.803Z
The website I mentioned says that 臭阴物 is often used.  I am not sure the book the OP is reading is so fastidious about dialect.  And if it is, then it would hardly turn chee into chou in a phrase where chee and chou occur next to each other.  Of course we could postulate some dialect unknown to us in which 臭 is pronounced chee.
Colin McLarty
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-11T14:21:57.247Z
I think the best idea so far is Wang Dingwei's 嗤 as an interjection we could express in English as "chortle."  Here I mean chortle to sound a bit like it chortling, as Wang Dingwei says of 嗤.  The radical on  嗤 suggests it can serve as onomatopoeia.
Colin McLarty
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-11T18:49:12.337Z
maybe you want to check this out: https://shinubiwang.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/urban-dictionary-臭屄-chao-chee-bye/. The problem is 嗤 is a verb (ex 嗤笑), it never seems to be used as an interjection ("嗤!" - does anyone say this?)
Master Sparkles
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-11T19:00:02.843Z
except the chee is actually 膣... interesting... I still think it might be dialect. 嗤 can be used onomatopoetically to describe a sound (ex 聽到"嗤"的一聲) but in that case it has no meaning (as opposed to saying something like "呸！" which is a sound but also has meaning).
Master Sparkles
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-12T09:06:56.147Z
@NeMo what does the [25] footnote refer to exactly?! is what @ ColinMcLarty said, in fact, true? it's from Jerome Grieder Intellectuals and the state in modern China?
Mou某
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-12T13:32:00.007Z
@user3306356  The quote really does not seem to be in Grieder's book.  I may have pursued the wrong footnote 25 in Zarrow's book since I am working from home on (partially available) Google Books copies.  I go in to the university today and if I have time I'll look for library copies.
Colin McLarty
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-05-05T18:01:20.577Z
I got the book back, and found that's not the right footnote. The citation for the passage I quoted above is footnoted to:
Cited in Joseph Esherick 'Revolution in a Feudal Fortress', pp 362-3
Ne Mo
<vocabulary>
What does 'chee' mean in the following quote?
# What does 'chee' mean in the following quote?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-01-10)

I read a very interesting book called '[China in War and Revolution](https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XORD7ODG2NUC&pg=PA356&dq=zarrow%20chee&hl=en&sa=X&ei=rXuwVMb4G5HaaoGYgIgN&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false)' about the period from 1900-1949 in China. I am curious about the meaning of the word 'chee' in the passage below. I don't speak Chinese (at all) and the author doesn't give the character in any case, sorry.

> After the Japanese were defeated and the civil war was under way the
> CCP faced the possibility of counter-revolution. At least in some
> areas, in spite of all attempts to soften rural elite opposition over
> the preceding years, landlords greeted early discussions of coalition
> government and a return of the Guomindang with glee. One landlord told
> one of his workers. “Heh! Still pressing us to pay grain tax. Fuck
> you. Chee! The Guomindang armies will be here in a minute. Gonna cut
> your little prick off! Chee!"

Edit: the quote is cited to ... where it appears exactly as Zarrow rendered it, still saying 'Chee'. In Esherick's article, it's cited to *Guanyu Yangjiagou de tudi wenti, 1946*.

I googled *this* title and it comes up with *Yangjiagou de tudi wcnti” (On the land problem in Yangjiagou, 9 August 1946, Mizhi Archives, permanent juan 4.*
<https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ib-sEZzxkb4C&pg=PA84&lpg=PA84&dq=Guanyu+Yangjiagou+de+tudi+wenti,+1946&source=bl&ots=9EQWEzteqt&sig=sS0e_s--cl8xXyzMDaTIZ3-Wvck&hl=en&sa=X&ei=201KVfj5EuPR7QaVrYG4Cg&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Guanyu> Yangjiagou de tudi wenti%2C 1946&f=false

So, can't go much further really. Chee! I mean, Ciao!

**Tags:** vocabulary
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Sounds like an exclamation of discontent. We have 嗤(chi) or 切(qie) in modern Chinese. The meaning and sounding are quite similar. I can't be sure unless I have the original source..  
> **username_2**: Looking at that book I see this passage is quoted from a book by Jerome Grieder _Intellectuals and the state in modern China_.  And your book says "romanization modified."  I think that to figure out what Chinese word that is supposed to be, you would have to look at Greider's version.  It could be 嗤 as Wang Dingwei suggests.  But "chee" is not a standard pinyin syllable at all and 嗤 makes little sense here unless it was a "sound effect" in Chinese, of a kind not used much in English.  
> **username_3**: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cheebye - it looks like "chee" might be a dialectical shift for the "chou" sound in Mandarin, assuming that "cheebye" is what I think it is.:P  
> **username_2**: I am not sure this book would use a Chinese dialect. But I will report the web site mysmu.edu/faculty/jacklee/singlish_C.htm#chee_bye gives the definiton of "chee bye" as Singapore or Hong Kong dialect for 阴物, Mandarin yīn wù, in an obscene sense.  
> **username_3**: I think my point is that they're quoting people who might not have been speaking in perfect Mandarin (not to mention people from a while back). That's also interesting... I thought it was 臭(尸穴) in Mandarin  
> **username_2**: The website I mentioned says that 臭阴物 is often used.  I am not sure the book the OP is reading is so fastidious about dialect.  And if it is, then it would hardly turn chee into chou in a phrase where chee and chou occur next to each other.  Of course we could postulate some dialect unknown to us in which 臭 is pronounced chee.  
> **username_2**: I think the best idea so far is Wang Dingwei's 嗤 as an interjection we could express in English as "chortle."  Here I mean chortle to sound a bit like it chortling, as Wang Dingwei says of 嗤.  The radical on  嗤 suggests it can serve as onomatopoeia.  
> **username_3**: maybe you want to check this out: https://shinubiwang.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/urban-dictionary-臭屄-chao-chee-bye/. The problem is 嗤 is a verb (ex 嗤笑), it never seems to be used as an interjection ("嗤!" - does anyone say this?)  
> **username_3**: except the chee is actually 膣... interesting... I still think it might be dialect. 嗤 can be used onomatopoetically to describe a sound (ex 聽到"嗤"的一聲) but in that case it has no meaning (as opposed to saying something like "呸！" which is a sound but also has meaning).  
> **username_4**: @NeMo what does the [25] footnote refer to exactly?! is what @ ColinMcLarty said, in fact, true? it's from Jerome Grieder Intellectuals and the state in modern China?  
> **username_2**: @user3306356  The quote really does not seem to be in Grieder's book.  I may have pursued the wrong footnote 25 in Zarrow's book since I am working from home on (partially available) Google Books copies.  I go in to the university today and if I have time I'll look for library copies.  
> **username_0**: I got the book back, and found that's not the right footnote. The citation for the passage I quoted above is footnoted to: Cited in Joseph Esherick 'Revolution in a Feudal Fortress', pp 362-3  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2015-01-12. Score: 4

I would guess that may have simply been chi4 "赤" (red), since [赤匪](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%85%B1%E5%8C%AA) (red bandit) was an derogatory term used by the KMT for the communists.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: Good possibility.  

---

