来源：英文联播
Fat Pigs and Demon Blades： China‘s nicknames for NBA stars are high art
At a time when star athletes brand themselves within an inch of their lives， the richly layered and occasionally mean fan-sourced monikers for NBA players in basketball-mad China are a refreshing departure。
在这个明星运动员几乎将品牌视作生命的时代，在为篮球而痴狂的中国，拥趸给NBA球员起的丰富多姿也偶尔刻薄的绰号，可真是让人耳目一新。
Earlier this week I starteda Twitter threadof Chinese nicknames for NBA players that went massively viral。 Although I personally found these nicknames hilarious and thought a few other people might too， I never expected the response to be so large， which got me wondering what it is about these Chinese monikers that people find so entertaining。
本周初，我在推特上扔了块石头，搜集中国人给NBA球员起的外号，结果一石激起千层浪。尽管我个人觉得这些绰号很可笑，以为能有个把人一起来开心一下，未曾想到反响这么大，这让我好奇，这些中国绰号为什么让人们如此开心。
Part of the answer is undoubtedly that American sports nicknames have become incredibly dull in recent years。 Compared to earlier eras in which sportswriters and fans drove the creation of colorful and sometimes insulting nicknames， the modern athlete is often a wealthy player-entrepreneur who seeks to build a global “brand” and therefore is more likely to foist their own “nickname” onto the media and the fan base， most likely one that is anodyne， short and thus social media ready， and easily understood across language and cultural boundaries。 In many cases， the player’s chosen “nickname” is little more than their initials， or their initials and their uniform number。
毫无疑问，部分答案是最近几年美国运动员的绰号太乏味了。相比早些年间，体育新闻记者和粉丝创造出五彩缤纷、有时甚至有点侮辱人的绰号，现代运动员常常是富有的球员兼企业家，他们要建立全球性“品牌”，更可能把自己的“绰号”强加给媒体和粉丝群体，因此绰号更可能平淡无奇，短小且适宜在社交媒体传播，让拥有不同语言和文化背景的人都能理解。许多情况下，球员自己选的“绰号”基本就是首字母缩写，或者是首字母缩写加球衣号。
On the Chinese side， there is a strong incentive to come up with short， pithy nicknames for foreign athletes and celebrities， because the phonetic transcriptions of western names used in official sources are incredibly long， dull， and hard to remember。
可到了中国，人们有动力给外国运动员和名人起个简明扼要的名字，因为官方对西方名字的语言转译都很长，很无聊，也记不住。
Just take Oklahoma City Thunder star Russell Westbrook， for example。 Although his name is only two words in English， in phonetic Chinese， it becomes the eight character monster 拉塞尔·衛斯布鲁克 （which in pinyin is luó sù · wèi sī tè bù lǔ kè， pronounced Loh-Soo Way-Suh-Tuh-Boo-Loo-Kuh）， for a staggering total of 77 individual strokes， even using the much simplified Chinese characters favored in mainlandChina。
拿俄克拉荷马雷霆队球星拉塞尔·卫斯布鲁克来说吧，尽管他的名字在英语中只有两个词，可到汉语里就成了八个字，就算用简体字写，也要77画。
No wonder Chinese fans prefer to call him something much shorter， like 威少 （“Lord Wei，” from the first syllable of “Westbrook”）， 忍者龟 （“The Ninja Turtle，” because people think he looks like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle）， or simply 西河 （“The Western River，” a direct translation of “Westbrook”）。
难怪中国粉丝叫他“威少”（“威少爷”，来自他的姓氏的第一个音节）、“忍者龟”（因为人们认为他长得像“少年变种人”忍者神龟）或干脆叫“西河”（西边的河水，这是他姓氏Westbrook的直译）。
The standardized phonetic versions of foreign names are also hard to remember because characters are deployed in random arrangements， chosen solely for their sounds and without any regard for their meanings， resulting in bizarre and nonsensical phrases。 This practice deprives Chinese of one of its greatest advantages over western languages – namely that Chinese characters convey both sound and meaning at the same time， not to mention rich historical and literary connotations from China’s 3，500 years of history。
外国名字的标准音译，中国人根本记不住，因为这些汉字没什么联系，完全是根据发音选择的，没有意义，简直是一派胡言。这种做法剥夺了中国人享有汉语对西方语言的最大优势之一，汉字表音又表意，还有丰富的历史和中国3500年历史传承下来的文学意涵。
In crafting new nicknames forNBAplayers， Chinese netizens take full advantage of the the richness and history of Chinese characters and language， and the results are often a series of astonishingly complex and overlapping visual and verbal puns。
Take the case of San Antonio Spurs shooting guard Danny Green。 When Green’s shooting percentage dropped off precipitously during the 2015-16 season， Chinese Spurs fans started calling him “Shoots Bricks Green” （张铁林）。
给NBA球员起绰号的中国网民尽情利用了汉字和汉语言的丰富多彩和其历史含义，经常创造出诸多隽永幽远、声情并茂的双关语。就说圣安东尼奥马刺队的得分后卫丹尼·格林吧。格林在2015到16赛季中得分率暴跌，中国的马刺队球迷叫他“张铁林”。
The first character 张 （zhāng） is short for 张手 （zhāng shǒu）， which means to shoot a basketball， the second character 铁 （tiě） is short for 打铁 （dǎ tiě）， which literally means “striking iron” but is the Chinese slang term for an ugly missed shot （a “brick”）， and 林 （lín） is short for 格林 （gé lín），which is Chinese phonetic transcription of “Green。”
第一个字“张”说的是“张手”，意思就是投篮，第二个“铁”说的是“打铁”，这是中国行话了手感全无、投篮失准的代名词，“林”就是“格林”。
However， when you put these characters all together， “Zhāng Tiělín” is also the name of a famous Chinese-born British actor best known for playing the Qianlong Emperor on the Chinese television series My Fair Princess。 Accordingly， people started calling Green “My Royal Father” （皇阿玛， huáng ā mǎ）， which is what the prince on the show always called the Emperor。
把这三个字放在一起，正好是一位著名华裔英国演员的名字，这位演员以在《还珠格格》中饰演皇帝闻名。于是，人们开始叫格林为“皇阿玛”，这是剧中的阿哥们对皇帝的称谓。
Other names Chinese fans invented for Green include 张继科 （zhāng jì kē）， which is the name of a famous Chinese table tennis player but also can be read “Shoots [like] Kobe’s Heir，” alluding to Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant， whom people similarly ridiculed for having a low shooting percentage。 Another was “Shoots Only Eggs” （张全蛋， zhāng quán dàn）， as eggs are shaped like zeroes， meaning misses。
中国球迷给格林创造的名字还有“张继科”，这是中国著名乒乓球运动员，意思是“投篮继承了科比”，影射洛杉矶湖人队的传奇巨星科比·布莱恩特，人们也嘲笑科比投篮不准。还有人叫他“张全蛋”，因为鸡蛋的形状像零分，意味着格林一投就没。
Another example is Lakers point guard Lonzo Ball， whose just concluded rookie season was promising but whose shooting was generally worse than advertised。 Chinese netizens took to calling Ball “Pavel Korchagin” （保尔柯察金）， a pun that is several layers deep。
另外一个例子是湖人队的控球后卫伦佐·鲍尔，作为最佳新人，刚刚结束的赛季表现不错，可他的投篮也没说的那么好。中国网民叫鲍尔“保尔·柯察金”，这个双关语有好几层意思。
First， the Chinese characters for “Pavel” （保尔， bǎo ěr） sound very similar to the characters for “Ball” （鮑爾， bào ěr）。 But more importantly， Pavel Korchagin is the protagonist of a 1930s Soviet socialist realist novel， extremely well-known in China， called How the Steel Is Tempered。 The image of “tempering steel” reminds people of how “striking iron” means bad shooting。
首先，中国字中“保尔”和“鲍尔”听起来差不多，更重要的是保尔·柯察金是三十年代社会主义苏联一部现实主义小说中的主人公，在中国家喻户晓，小说的名字是《钢铁是怎样炼成的》。“炼钢”的意向让人们想起了“打铁”，也就是投篮不准。
Kobe Bryant himself has several amusing nicknames alluding to his low shooting percentage， including “The King of Striking Iron” （打铁王） and “The Los Angeles Blacksmith” （洛杉矶铁匠）。 Perhaps the most amusing， however， is people calling Kobe “Carbon Monoxide， Ferric Oxide” or “CO， Fe2O3” （一氧化碳， 三氧化二铁）， which sounds exactly the same as “He shoots one fadeaway and misses， he shoots three fadeaways and bricks two of them” （一仰化叹， 三仰化二铁）。
科比·布莱恩特本人也有几个好笑的绰号，影射他投篮得分率低，包括“打铁王”和“洛杉矶铁匠”。但兴许最有好笑的是，人们叫科比“一氧化碳，三氧化二铁”，正好说的是他“跳投一次，忘篮兴叹”、“跳投三次，两次打铁”。
It is this combination of cleverness， levity， and meanness， as well as the layers of puns and allusions， which make Chinese nicknames so fun to try to understand。 Unlike many American sports nicknames， which tend to be rather straightforwardly hyperbolic and unironically positive （not least because many are chosen by the athletes themselves）， even the more positive Chinese nicknames tend to be a mixture of both praise and sarcasm that both fans and haters can get behind。
正是这种聪明气儿和轻浮范儿以及重重双关语和影射，让中国绰号想其来就这么风趣。不像美国体育界的绰号，赤裸裸地自吹自擂、像央视一样高大上，更别提很多还是运动员自己选的，在中国，就算正面的绰号也褒中有贬，爱他的、恨他的都点赞。
Thus， although Hall of Fame rebounding legend Charles Barkley was called a “fat pig，” he was a flying fat pig （飞猪）， alluding to his preternatural ability to rise above taller， slimmer players to grab copious numbers of rebounds （the Chinese words for “fat” and “flying” sound the same）。
因此，尽管名人堂的篮板王查尔斯·巴克利被称为“肥猪”，他却是头“飞猪”，说得是他有不可思议的能力，比更高更瘦的球员跳得都高，抢到大量的篮板。（汉语了“肥”和“飞”发音一样。）
Similarly Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid is called “the Great” （大帝）， but with the sarcastic implication that this is a self-anointed epithet that Embiid has not yet earned。
还有费城七十六人队的乔尔·恩比德，他被称为“大帝”，但这是一种讽刺，说的是他自封为大帝。
Likewise while Spurs star Manu Ginobili’s nickname “The Demon Blade” （妖刀） sounds awesome， and does indeed allude to his incredible ability to slash through defenders and get to the basket， in Chinese martial arts fiction a sword possessed by a demon is quite powerful and devastating to enemies， but often turns against its owner at crucial times， which recalls Ginobili’s track record of occasionally making mistakes or letting down his team in big moments。
褒中有贬的还有马刺队球星马努·吉诺比利，他的绰号是“妖刀”，听起来挺厉害，也的确说他突破防守上篮的超强实力，但在中国武侠小说中，恶魔手上的刀很魔性，能摧毁敌人，可关键时刻也反过来弑主，这让人想到吉诺比利有时会在关键时刻掉链子，让球队失望。
The one of the few NBA player with entirely positive nickname is Michael Jordan。 Jordan is called 帮主 （“gang boss” or “sect leader”） because one of the Chinese characters for his last name 乔丹 （qiáo dān） is the same as the surname of Qiao Feng， the legendary leader of the “Beggars’ Sect” in popular wuxia martial arts novels， often known simply as “Sect Leader Qiao” （乔帮主）。
NBA球员中为数不多的完全正面的绰号是迈克尔·乔丹，乔丹被称为“帮主”（黑帮老大或帮派领袖），因为中国字中他的姓氏“乔”和著名武侠小说中“丐帮”的传奇领导人乔峰同姓，乔峰就是“乔帮主”。
It is difficult to overstate how beloved and respected Qiao Feng is in Chinese-speaking communities worldwide。 An unparalleled martial artist and brilliant leader， Qiao fights for justice and sacrifices for the greater good。 This is truly high praise and is a sign of the respect and esteem Chinese people still have for Jordan （as well as Steve Jobs， the other foreign person they nicknamed after Qiao Feng）。
在全世界的汉语圈里，乔峰多受人敬爱，怎么说都不为过。乔峰是震古烁今的武侠大师和出类拔萃的领导人，他为公正而战，为了大义而牺牲。这是中国人对乔丹最高的褒奖和敬重，同享“乔帮主”美名的另一位外国人是史蒂夫·乔布斯。
Given the large and growing importance of the Chinese market to the NBA’s present and its future， players and teams may want to learn more about the various nicknames that Chinese fans have given them， and may want to play a more proactive role in helping shape how they are called by Chinese fans。
考虑到中国市场对NBA的现在和未来而言非常重要，且越来越重要，球员和球队希望更多了解中国粉丝给他们起的绰号，想发挥更主动的作用，塑造他们在中国粉丝中的称谓。
Simply pushing existing English nicknames onto Chinese fans is unlikely to succeed， even and perhaps especially if those nicknames are just letters and numbers。 As one Chinese netizen puts it， “The English nicknames are mostly boring to us。 We only use them for players who are not popular or don’t have too many fans。 When a player gets popular in China， they start to get a bunch of new nicknames。”
仅把英语绰号强加给中国粉丝是不可能成功的，尤其是这些绰号仅仅是字母和数字。正如一个中国网民所言，“英语绰号对我们而言太无聊了。我们会用它们称呼那些没名气的球员或没多少粉丝的球员。谁要是在中国火了，他们就会有一串新绰号。”