I am always slow to youth culture online. Before I figured out what was going on, the term 绿茶婊 (lvcha biao, green tea bitch, hereby shorthanded as GTB) had already went viral on the Internet. I still remembered all of a sudden on Weibo and WeChat my friends started using them frequently to refer to some women. So just what exactly does it mean? Where did come from? And why did it attract so many attention from Chinese netizens and why do they like to use it? This blog post is intended to explore the origin of this term.
After going through various bulletin boards, Baidu Encyclopedia, and blogs, there was a consensus about the origin of the term. It's said that GTB was first invented several years ago in Douban (豆瓣), one of the most popular bulletin board among Chinese youth, which covers any topic one can possible imagine. However, the term didn't gain popularity at that time (probably because people were not yet familiar with the group of women that were later labelled as GTB).
In 2013, the term officially entered the public sphere in a well-known luxurious party event for wealthy and powerful men in Hainan Province, South China called Haitian Rendez-Vous (海天盛筵, haitian shengyan). People used to know this event as nothing more than another luxurious party for wealthy people to get together, socialize, drink and relax, That year, however, some "insiders" released some (secretly-taken) pictures online, revealing that a large number of young actresses and models were selling sex during the event, and Haitian Rendez-Vous, the public realized, might be a sex carnival for rich people (see below for some of the released pictures).
After going through various bulletin boards, Baidu Encyclopedia, and blogs, there was a consensus about the origin of the term. It's said that GTB was first invented several years ago in Douban (豆瓣), one of the most popular bulletin board among Chinese youth, which covers any topic one can possible imagine. However, the term didn't gain popularity at that time (probably because people were not yet familiar with the group of women that were later labelled as GTB).
In 2013, the term officially entered the public sphere in a well-known luxurious party event for wealthy and powerful men in Hainan Province, South China called Haitian Rendez-Vous (海天盛筵, haitian shengyan). People used to know this event as nothing more than another luxurious party for wealthy people to get together, socialize, drink and relax, That year, however, some "insiders" released some (secretly-taken) pictures online, revealing that a large number of young actresses and models were selling sex during the event, and Haitian Rendez-Vous, the public realized, might be a sex carnival for rich people (see below for some of the released pictures).
Because these actress/models usually appear to be innocent, pure, wear little to none make-ups (裸妆, luozhuang, literally means naked make-up, which seems to be, according to my amateur's knowledge, a way of wearing make-up that makes it seem like one is wearing none), they resemble the imagined features of green tea in China. Indeed, as opposed to red tea, for many Chinese people, green tea is light in favor, color, scent, and even effect. It is used to calm your nerves; it is not meant to surprise or excite, but it beats any other drinks for its gentle, long-lasting, lingering scent. Green tea has long been associated with poetry, art, purity, and respectability.
However, these women are also sex workers, which will be colloquially referred to as 婊子, biaozi. In China, the translation for 婊子 is bitch, which, after conversations with my American friends, does not mean exactly the same thing in the U.S. (a friend told me that bitch in the United States tends to mean a tough woman. Hilary Clinton was the example she used to illustrate it). Originally, 婊子 is a derogatory term meaning whores, prostitutes. In today's China, 婊子 can literally be used to refer to any kind of women one does not like, even though it maintains its meaning as prostitutes.
Netizens thus combined these two terms, green tea and bitch, to create a category for the women who sold sex at the event. They appear to be innocent and pure but actually they are sex workers. The meaning and definition of this term, however, did not remain exactly the same. Clearly when I first heard the term used among my friends, they didn't mean to accuse of each other of being sex workers. Not to mention that even some celebrities use GT(B) to refer to themselves. Apparently, the meaning of the term has evolved. So how do people, as citizen linguists, use this term? What do they mean when they think someone is a GTB? Is it negative, positive, endearing?
However, these women are also sex workers, which will be colloquially referred to as 婊子, biaozi. In China, the translation for 婊子 is bitch, which, after conversations with my American friends, does not mean exactly the same thing in the U.S. (a friend told me that bitch in the United States tends to mean a tough woman. Hilary Clinton was the example she used to illustrate it). Originally, 婊子 is a derogatory term meaning whores, prostitutes. In today's China, 婊子 can literally be used to refer to any kind of women one does not like, even though it maintains its meaning as prostitutes.
Netizens thus combined these two terms, green tea and bitch, to create a category for the women who sold sex at the event. They appear to be innocent and pure but actually they are sex workers. The meaning and definition of this term, however, did not remain exactly the same. Clearly when I first heard the term used among my friends, they didn't mean to accuse of each other of being sex workers. Not to mention that even some celebrities use GT(B) to refer to themselves. Apparently, the meaning of the term has evolved. So how do people, as citizen linguists, use this term? What do they mean when they think someone is a GTB? Is it negative, positive, endearing?