meaning of "jook seng"?

[rik]

Hi I was wonder what does "jook seng" mean? HOw is it written in characters? Thanks!!

[Dylan Sung]

Its hard to say really, as there are a number of homophonous characters they could be.

For instance, "jook" could mean 'bamboo', 'enough', 'to catch'

Seng, may mean ''an odd smell (like the sea smell of fish, or the metalic smell of rust)", "sound", etc...

My guess is it means the sound of bamboo.

Dyl.

[Lisa c]

It's an old Say yap term meaning empty/hollow bamboo. It's used to describe Chinese not born in China/HK/Taiwan. It was derogatory at first like banana. Bamboo representing Chinese, but empty of Chinese culture, values then it came to mean overseas born Chinese. I think primarily used in the US b/c of the large say yap population.

Newer immigrants use the term "tou zhi" for overseas born Chinese.

Another term that's a bit derogatory is "jook hap" used to describe Chinese born in the "old" country but grew up in the new country so isn't really "Chinese".

[Mirror]

竹升 derives from 竹槓 (bamboo stick), but 槓 sounds like 降 which means going down. That's not a good sign to Chinese, hence, they change it to the opposite word 升 meaning going up. It used to mean that Chinese going overseas to study and came back trying to look like westerners. Gradually, it became what Lisa has written, overseas born Chinese.

[Dhat]

I never heard those words, but it's normal since I am a "jook seng" myself

How do yo write "tou zhi" and "jook hap" in Chinese please ?

Here just a test to see whether I can past Chinese characters correctly : (大家好)