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In English I know of two colourful terms for blowing your nose without use of a handkerchief or tissue by holding one nostril closed and expelling mucus from the other:

(There are other terms too that I've learned since starting this question: farmer's blow, farmers handkerchief, bushman's hanky, warehouse blow...)

In English we would never use the plain turn of phrase to blow one's nose for this act, even if we didn't know the slang/jocular terms I listed above we would use some circumlocution to describe the (to us) irregular method of nose blowing.

Yesterday morning I saw a nice young lady perform this manoeuvre in the street outside my hotel in a town outside Chengdu, Sichuan. This cemented the notion I already had that this act is not stigmatized in Chinese culture. But I'm not sure whether it's considered a normal or plain way to blow one's nose using the usual Chinese expression for nose blowing.

Is there a slang, jocular, or colloquial term (or any other kind of term) for this act in Chinese? (I'm most interested in Mandarin but other varieties of Chinese are also interesting.)

hippietrail
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    I LOVE THIS QUESTION! – Stumpy Joe Pete Nov 16 '13 at 20:48
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    Tried asking my SO this question but she tossed my phone back at me and screamed 恶心 so I'm not going to be much help but would love to see an answer, also in Australia we call this a farmers handkerchief – 50-3 Nov 16 '13 at 22:23
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    The key point of "bushman's blow" I've just learnt is in the absence of suitable catching material, i.e. blowing your nose with no handkerchief or tissue or sleeve, to the best of my knowledge, there's no equivalent Chinese term for this one. And for "snot rocket", the definition in Wiktionary seems just the "expelling" action without the key point above, we call it "擤鼻涕" in Chinese. – Stan Nov 17 '13 at 02:03
  • @Stan: Well that's just the current state of the Wiktionary definition that a random person off the internet added. I've always interpreted the phrase to refer to the act rather than the projectile. So the usual term for blowing one's nose in Chinese is 'xi bi ti' but the term for this style is 'xing bi ti'? – hippietrail Nov 17 '13 at 03:31
  • @50-3: I'm also an Aussie and have never heard farmers handkerchief before (-: – hippietrail Nov 17 '13 at 03:32
  • @hippietrail: "Blowing one's nose" is 擤鼻涕 (xǐng bí tì), it doesn't contain other information about style. But sorry, I can't recall any term read "xi bi ti", can you provide the corresponding Chinese characters? – Stan Nov 17 '13 at 03:44
  • @Stan: No sorry my Chinese is pre-embryonic so I just remembered it wrong, but the link you provided included the wording "to blow the nose with fingers" so that made me think it must contrast with the term I had asked a Chinese speaker about when I wanted "to blow my nose with a tissue". – hippietrail Nov 17 '13 at 03:50
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    @Stan: I found a second reference/definition of each term to provide greater depth/perspective in case any source is poor quality or biased. – hippietrail Nov 17 '13 at 04:30
  • @hippietrail really? Very popular in rural Victoria. – 50-3 Nov 17 '13 at 05:34
  • @50-3: In hunting additional definitions I came across more variants: "warehouse blow" and "farmers blow". – hippietrail Nov 17 '13 at 05:38
  • @Stan I think xi bi ti is 吸鼻涕? – user58955 Nov 17 '13 at 06:29
  • I found my notes and indeed I was told 擤鼻涕 xǐng bítì. – hippietrail Nov 17 '13 at 06:31
  • The closest I couldn't think of is 随地擤鼻涕. – NS.X. Nov 17 '13 at 06:51
  • @NS.X.: You couldn't think of? It looks like you could (-: – hippietrail Nov 17 '13 at 06:59

2 Answers2

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From the comments it seems like we've already established that blowing your nose is accurately translated as "擤鼻涕". As far as I can tell (from experience and further online research), there is no popular slang for doing so. The closest way to easily describe such action would be something like "不用纸擤鼻涕".

However, I should point out that this action is in fact pretty stigmatized in the Chinese culture, especially in more developed regions. Chinese people are simply less self-conscious about what others might think of their actions, which is why you'll still see people doing it.

Jason Chan
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在中文的世界裡，沒有一個能夠清楚傳達(或是相對應) "Bushman's Blow" 的詞彙，

而上述的討論中，@hippietrail 所指的 "擤(ㄒㄧㄥˇ)鼻涕" 是 "Blow your nose".

若真的要闡述 "Bushman's Blow" ，"壓著一邊的鼻子，把鼻涕給噴出來" 則是可以被接受的。

PS：華人很少有 "Bushman's Blow" 這個動作，幾乎是 "Blow your nose" 比較多。

Kevin Dong
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  • @People_in_Taiwan I would disagree with your PS, I see it on a daily basis, 老年男女。 – tao Dec 11 '13 at 05:19