Be Careful Using "Xiao Jie (lady)" in China!

News Flashback

After 3 hours of battling in the finals of Miss USA 2014, Miss Nevada USA Nia Sanchez beat all 50 other ladies on the evening of June 8, to be crowned Miss USA 2014 in Baton Rouge.

"Baton Rouge may be the happiest place on earth". Miss Kansas, Audrey Banach tweeted. Over the past several days, the 51 contestants, beautiful ladies from every single state in the United States have drawn the spotlight to this Baton Rouge.

Miss Nevada USA Nia Sanchez Crowned Miss USA 2014

The Miss USA 2014 pageant officially kicked off at the Baton Rouge River Center on June 4 with preliminaries. During the several days, all 51 contestants showed on stage with swim suits, evening gowns and competed in the pool volleyball games, all the way to the finals. All ladies showed serious confidence to win the Miss USA 2014 title. Who is your goddess? Who's on your short list for the crown?

Learn Chinese Word – "Xiao Jie"

In Chinese, the word for “lady” or “Miss” is 小姐(xiǎo jiě). 小姐 is usually used as a title to address ladies at a younger age in China. In the past, it refers to unmarried ladies, but nowadays it can used to describe any women with a young look, despite the marriage status.

In Chinese language, we have two main ways to use 小姐. The first is to address a woman, like calling one’s name.

e.g.

wǒ kéyǐ bānɡzhù nǐ mɑ，xiǎojiě?

我可以帮助你吗，小姐?

May I help you, Miss?

The other is to put 小姐 after a young woman’s family name as a title.

张小姐(zhānɡ xiǎojiě), meaning “Miss Zhang”

李小姐(lǐ xiǎojiě), meaning “Miss Li”.

Be Careful Using "Xiao Jie"

However, as society develops, 小姐 has had a deeper meaning and many young women in China are very sensitive to this word and may become angry when called 小姐。The reason is that 小姐, for a time, was what people use to call street girls or prostitutes when porn industry boomed in China. Nowadays, the Chinese word 小姐 is kind of a taboo in China. And in order to avoid misunderstandings, you are advised to use 小姐 very carefully in China. Instead, we can use 女士(nǚ shì), which is a more polite way to address a lady in China.

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