When it comes to adulation, fans express it in a thousand and one ways, from the basic plastering of posters of their favorite celebrities on the walls of their bedroom to the most outrageous, such as getting the name--or even the face--of their idol tattooed on their body.
For some Chinese fans, giving nicknames to pop stars seemed more like fun.
After an online “spelunking” on Chinese websites, Christina Xu blogged on Feb. 15, 2015 about her discovery of nicknames given by some netizens to a handful of female American celebrities in the music industry.
The New York-based organizational designer and ethnographer described such nicknames as “ingenious, hilarious, and often slightly insulting.”
Who are those celebrities?
Award-winning rapper-singer-songwriter Nicki Minaj injected added amusement both among the contestants and viewers of the Season 12 of “American Idol” by addressing the Idol hopefuls with nicknames she thought of herself, reported MTV.
Born Onika Tanya Maraj, Minaj herself keeps a long list of nicknames, including Harajuku Barbie, Lap Dance Nika, and Nicki the Boss.
Who would have thought that she would receive the nickname “ma la ji” or “spicy chicken” from Chinese fans? It is “a slant transliteration of ‘Minaj,’” according to Xu.
When it comes to food, Minaj revealed during an online Q&A session with her fans through MTV’s Facebook page in Jan. 2015 that her favorite food was curry chicken (sorry, not the spicy one), reported YoungMoneyHQ.com.
Another multi-awarded pop royalty, Taylor Swift also has her share of nicknames.
Born Taylor Alison Swift, the 26-year-old singer-songwriter responds to calls of Tay, Tay-Tay and T-Swizzle.
Chinese fans refer to her as “mei mei” or “unlucky.”
That may seem to be an unlikely adjective to attach to someone who made it to the Forbes 2015 World's 100 Most Powerful Women at number 64.
Xu said that fans gave her such a nickname because many of Swift’s singles didn’t hit the number one spot at the Billboard Top 100.
According to Billboard, between Jan. 2007 and Nov. 2015, only three Tay singles reached the top spot: “Bad Blood” (from the album “1989”) on June 6, 2015; “Blank Space” (from “1989”) on Nov. 29, 2014; and “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” (from “Now That's What I Call Music!, Vol. 83”) on Sept. 1, 2012.
“Katy” is a common nickname for someone named Katherine, but the Chinese nicknamed singer-songwriter-actress Katy Perry, Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson in real life, as “shui guo jie” or “Fruit Sister,” reported CNN.
The 31-year-old songstress, presently being romantically linked to English actor Orlando Bloom (“Pirates of the Caribbean” series and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy), earned such a nickname because of her “tendency to wear fruit costumes.”
It’s a known fact that cows moo; these animals don’t, well, whistle.
It can be funny, to say the least, that Chinese fans would nickname Mariah Carey, Mimi to her family and bosom friends, as “niu jie” or “Cow Sister.”
It’s actually the Chinese way of telling the 45-year-old chanteuse that she’s “f***ing awesome.”
And it’s not because Carey towers at 5’8" and singer-actress Arianna Grande only stands 5 feet tall that the 22-year-old Grande gained the nickname “xiao niu” or “little cow”--but because for the Chinese, she sounds like her.
All her fans know that she’s Jenny from the Block, but for the Chinese, Jennifer Lynn Lopez or Jennifer Lopez or simply J. Lo might also be called “luo ba” or “Lord of Butt.”
According to People, the 46-year-old actress-singer’s famous buttocks were “reportedly insured for $27 million.”
Fans all over the world might be wondering how these celebrities would react to their new nickname--the Chinese version one.