I just started a new Facebook group:

Hold the Méi-Yŏu (停止沒有)

If you’ve ever tried to buy anything in China, you’ve undoubtedly been told, “méi-yŏu” (沒有, or “don’t have”). This standard phrase, popular for answering foreigners, has a wide variety of actual meanings, including “It’s not here”, “I don’t know if we have that”, “I have no idea what big-nose here is saying”, “Can’t you see that I’m taking a nap”, and “Wait until the commercial … this riveting Chinese soap opera totally takes priority over helping my customers”.

So join the group and share a funny or frustrating story from a time you’ve been méi-yŏu’d!

Posted to webeldotnet on Wednesday, November 29th, 2006 at 11:15 am EST in Sweet Links & China (comment feed). If you refer to this post on your blog, please trackback. Thanks!