Can a broken marriage get back together?

--- A notorious Chinese word "Xiao San"

News Flashback

News in the entertainment industry, good or bad, never fails to draw the attention of the public. Months ago, the whole Chinese social media and fans were shocked by the news that Wen Zhang, the famous “good man” in the public eyes, was having an extra-marital affair with Yao Di, another famous Chinese actress.

Wen Zhang and Yao Di Spotted Hanging Out

Wen Zhang and Yao Di cooperated with each other in the famous Chinese TV series “Naked Wedding”, which is a big success in China, and then their romance blossomed. Wen Zhang’s secret relationship with the third person, actress Yao Di was revealed after the two being spotted together in Shenzhen airport.

Wen Zhang and Yao Di in the TV Series - Naked Wedding

After the photos were released, Wen stepped out to apologize on Weibo, while his wife, Ma Yili, also wrote on Weibo “You should treasure what is valuable as you move on”, which has already become one of the most popular phrases among Chinese net users. Ma Yili stayed out of the public for quite a long time until recently, another group of photos drew the social attention back to the couple.

Wen Zhang (Middle) and His Wife Ma Yili (left) Get Back Together

Published by one of their friends, the photo showed that Ma Yili wass kissing Wen Zhang on his 30th birthday. Apparently, a broken mirror has finally been jointed together. Good for you Wen, who should work hard to be a "better man."

Chinese word for Extra-marrital Affairs

Maybe we are going to learn some “bad” words in this topic. In Chinese, we use this word “出轨 (chū ɡuǐ)” to describe an extra-marital affair. 出 means “to go out”, while 轨 means “the tracks (of a train, planet, etc.)”. So, literally 出轨 means “to go out of the track”. Here, it is used as a metaphor, referring to the disloyal behaviors in a marriage.

E.g.:

tā de zhànɡfu chūɡuǐ le，suóyǐ tā hěn shānɡxīn

她的丈夫出轨了，所以她很伤心。

Her husband is having an extra-marrital affair, so she is very sad.

A notorious Chinese word "Xiao San"

Another word we are going to learn is the notorious “the third person”. In Chinese, it is called “小三儿 (xiǎo sān'r)”, which literally means “the third person (usually female)”. 小 originally means “small”, but in here, it is a way to address someone. For example, in Chinese we can also call a person surnamed Wang 小王. 儿 doesn’t have a specific meaning here. It is a pronunciation phenomenon of adding the sound “r” to nouns and sometimes verbs, causing a retro-flexion of the preceding vowel. Similar examples can be found in Chinese words 哪儿 (nǎ'r)， 花儿 (huā'r)，etc.

Born from Internet and under the background of rapid development of Chinese society, the word 小三儿 always has a special meaning in China. Since 小三儿 step foot on an already existed happy marriage and only care about themselves, they are considered as selfish and always draw a very bad fame in China.

Another word for “the third person” is called “狐狸精 (húlijīnɡ)”, literally meaning the “fox”. It refers to a seductive woman and is a more notorious saying than the previous one. Can you hear a similar word in the video above when the girl is telling her boyfriend Liu Yiyang to behave himself when he is about to go on a business trip?