📖 Meaning
Describes someone speaking in an affectedly sweet, coquettish, or pampered tone, often with a drawling or whining quality. It typically characterizes the speech of a spoiled child or a woman putting on a flirtatious, helpless act to gain favor or attention.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from Lu Xun's 1918 essay collection 'Hot Wind' (热风), specifically 'Random Thoughts No. 25' (随感录二十五). In it, Lu Xun sharply contrasts the lives of rich and poor children in early Republican-era China: poor children roam the streets disheveled and neglected, while the children of the wealthy 'act affected and speak in coquettish tones' (妖形妖势娇声娇气) inside their homes. The phrase captured the performative, pampered speech mannerisms that Lu Xun saw as a symptom of the idle, indulged upper class. It entered the broader lexicon as a pointed descriptor for cloyingly sweet, affected speech.
💡 Example Usage
那小女孩娇声娇气地跟奶奶讨糖吃。
The little girl spoke in a coquettish, wheedling voice as she begged her grandmother for candy.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 娇声娇气
- Pinyin: jiāo shēng jiāo qì
- Literal Translation: delicate voice, delicate manner
- Category: Communication
- Characters: 4