Gweilo (40 page)

THE SPELLING OF CANTONESE WORDS DOES NOT NECESSARILY
follow the accepted Pin Yin or other linguistic systems (such as Wade-Giles) but is the roughly phonetic spelling of how Cantonese was spoken by the average European
(gweilo)
at the time. It may well be inaccurate, for which I apologize. The spelling of pidgin English is also phonetic.

atap
a woven bamboo and/or rice straw matting used to cover bamboo windbreaks, peasant buildings and temporary structures

ayarh!
a common expletive: it has no literal meaning

baksheesh
alms (of Middle Eastern origin) cf.
kumshaw

cash
ancient Chinese copper coins with round or square holes in the centre

chau
island

cheen
money

chop
noun: an ivory carved seal; verb: to attack with a meat chopper or knife

chop! chop!
pidgin English for
get a move on/hurry up

chow
food: a generic word (
small chow
means canapés)

congee
a form of rice gruel-cum-porridge eaten for breakfast

dai
big – e.g.
dai fung
(typhoon) means big wind

dai pai dong
a street-side cooked-food stall (not a fast-food purveyor)

dim sum
small steamed dumplings containing bite-sized lumps of shrimp, pork, beef and other ingredients

diu nei lo mo
Literally
go fuck your mother
but often used coarsely as an epithet the equivalent of
You don't say!
or
Well, I'll be damned;
also used vindictively or pejoratively

dofu
known in the West as tofu or soya bean curd

dor jei
thank you
(for an item or gift)

Fide! Fide!
literally
Quick! Quick!
but implying the more impolite
Get a move on!

fung shui
pronounced
fong soy
, it is the art (or science) of achieving harmony in one's surroundings by balancing the influences of wind
(fung)
and water
(soy)

gai doh cheen
how much?
Literally,
how much money?

Gai duk toh
a Christian

garoupa
a large sea fish, a delicacy frequently served in Chinese cuisine

godown
a warehouse

golden pagoda
an ossuary urn

heui la!
go!/let's go!

ho
good
or
yes

Ho! Ho!
Nei ho ma?
Good! Good! How are you?
(a common polite greeting)

ho pang yau
good friend

Ho
sik!
Good to eat/eating/food

hutong
alley or passageway

kai fong associations
Chinese social charities

kam taap
golden pagoda: see above

kang
a traditional Chinese sleeping bed or platform made of wood or stone, the latter often having a fire beneath it for warmth

kukri
an exceedingly sharp, curved fighting knife used by Nepalese Gurkha troops

kumshaw
alms (of Cantonese origin)

kwai
a ghost; more accurately a disembodied spirit

Kwan Ti
the god of war and literature, and the patron god of secret brotherhoods, the police and many others

lai see packet
a red paper envelope printed with gold lettering and containing money: usually given as a gift at Chinese New Year

loh siu
a rat (or mouse)

mai dan
the bill

Mat yeh?
What?
(rudely implying
What do you want?
)

m'ho
bad or no

m'ho cheen
Literally,
no money

m'koi
thank you
(for a service or act); also, on occasion by implication,
please

muntjak
a small, indigenous deer, also known as a barking deer on account of its dog-like call

Nei wui mui gong ying mun?
Do you speak English?

Nei giu mut ye meng?
What is your name?

Nei ho ma?
How do you do?
– a common greeting

nga pin
opium

ng mun
five dollars

Ngo giu
jo
My name is . . .

nullah
an open drain, varying in size from two feet wide and three deep up to sixty feet wide and fifteen deep; usually built to cope with heavy rain or effluent

pi lau
a ceremonial archway

praya
a stone-fronted dock or esplanade

pu-erh
a variety of Chinese tea

roorkee chair
a folding camp chair used in India and rather like a film director's chair

sarong
a Malay (usually Tamil) ankle-length cotton skirt worn by men

saw hei
combed or combed back (of hair)

Sei Hoi Jau Dim
Fourseas Hotel

shadouf
an ancient Egyptian crane-like irrigation mechanism for raising water

shéh
snake

skink
a common lizard

suq
an Arab market or bazaar

taipan
a wealthy businessman, traditionally the expatriate head of a major trading company or 'noble house'

ushabti
a small ancient Egyptian funerary sculpture

wan
bay or inlet

wei!
hey!
or, if used on the telephone,
hello:
the American equivalent would be
Yoh!

wok
a type of cooking pot, used especially for shallow frying or searing

won ton
a deep fried dumpling of minced beef and pork, water chestnuts and onions

yamen
a building housing the home and office of a mandarin, magistrate or other regional administrator in dynastic times

yat, yee, sam, sei, ng, lok
. . . one, two, three, four, five, six . . .

yum cha
literally
drink tea

by Martin Booth

'So good no one will need to do another for at least fifty years . . . mesmerizing detail, fantastical digressions, lots of jokes and wry asides' James Delingpole,
Literary Review

'After two puffs on a marijuana cigarette, I was turned into a bat'
Dr James Munch, pharmacologist and special adviser to the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 1938

To some it's antisocial anathema, to others it is a harmless way to relax, or provides relief from crippling pain. Some fear it is a dangerous drug that leads to 'reefer madness' and addiction; to others still it is a legal anomaly and should be decriminalized. Whatever the viewpoint, and by whatever name it is known, cannabis – or marijuana, hashish, pot, dope,
kif
, weed,
dagga
, grass,
ganja
– incites debate at every level.

In this definitive study, Martin Booth – author of the acclaimed
Opium: A History
– charts the history of cannabis from the Neolithic period to the present day. It is a fascinating, colourful tale of medical advance, religious enlightenment, political subterfuge and human rights; of law enforcement and customs officers, smugglers, street pushers, gang warfare, writers, artists, musicians, hippies and pot-heads.

Booth chronicles the remarkable and often mystifying process through which cannabis, a relatively harmless substance, became outlawed throughout the Western world, and the devastating effect such legislation has had on the global economy. Above all, he demonstrates how the case for decriminalization remains one of the twenty-first century's hottest topics.

'Booth tells this story with admirable restraint. . . this book should be on the shelf of anyone interested in human freedoms and bad laws'
Independent

'Enlightening . . . a very engaging history'
Daily Telegraph

'Amazingly informative . . . fascinating stuff
Financial Times

0 553 81418 4

Richard Wollheim

'A GREAT BOOK, STRANGE AND BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN . . . TO BE COUNTED AMONG THOSE MASTERPIECES OF WHICH THE FADING MEMORY CONTINUALLY DEMANDS RETURN AND REFRESHMENT'

Frank Kermode,
Times Literary Supplement

The son of affluent parents – a distant, dandified impresario father he revered; a beautiful, mindless 'Gaiety Girl' mother he came to regret loathing – Richard Wollheim grew up in the English suburbia of the 1920s and 1930s.
Germs
is his account of those years. It is a book like no other; a remarkable exploration of childhood by one of the English-speaking world's most distinguished postwar thinkers.

'A HUMAN DOCUMENT OF CONSIDERABLE POWER AND IMPORTANCE'

John Armstrong,
Independent

'WOLLHEIM'S POWERS OF DESCRIPTION ASTOUND . . . BECAUSE OF THE INTENSITY WITH WHICH A REMARKABLE MAN HAS OFFERED US A VIEW OF HIS INNER SELF, I DOUBT WHETHER ANYONE WHO HAS READ IT WILL FORGET IT'

Diana Athill,
Literary Review

'PUNGENTLY TRUTHFUL, COMPLEX AND ORIGINAL'

Alan Hollinghurst,
Guardian

'THE VOICE IS INIMITABLE: SUBTLE, SEDUCTIVE, MOVING FROM DEADPAN HILARITY TO ACHING SADNESS'

Roy Foster,
Times Literary Supplement

'A MASTERPIECE – AN UNCLASSIFIABLE WORK OF STARTLING ORIGINALITY IN WHICH THE ACUTELY SENSUAL AND CONFUSEDLY CEREBRAL EXPERIENCE OF INFANCY, BOYHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE IS BRILLIANTLY RECREATED'

Francis Wyndham,
Spectator

0 552 77314 X

Confessions of a Book Addict
by John Baxter

'After 400 pages of enjoyable, diverting material, the discerning reader will surely grasp one point above all others: that this is an excellent book'
Sunday Telegraph

In the rural Australia of the fifties where John Baxter grew up, reading books was regarded with suspicion; owning and collecting them with utter incomprehension.

Despite this, by the age of eleven Baxter had 'collected' his first book –
The Poems of Rupert Brooke
. He'd read it often, but now he had to own it. This modest purchase marked the beginning of an obsession that would take him all over the world . . .

In the comic tradition of Clive James'
Unreliable Memoirs, A Pound of Paper
is a brilliantly readable, honest and funny account of a life spent in pursuit of a passion – of how a boy from the bush came to be living in a Paris penthouse with a library worth millions.

'His extraordinary enthusiasm for his subject is infectious . . . a
wonderful memoir'
Literary Review

'Extremely entertaining and unusual . . . an account of a lifetime's
passionate pursuit of signed copies and biblio-rarities'
Sunday Times

'Packed with characters . . . and rich with anecdotes. Fascinating, funny and
informative,
A Pound of Paper
should surely be the cornerstone of any
respectable collection'
Time Out

'A valuable record of a passing, ephemeral era; before the
price of everything became known'
Guardian

0 553 81442 7