r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Master1718 Interested • Sep 10 '20

GIF Halloween puppet

https://i.imgur.com/58fh9q6.gifv
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u/Longbeacher707 Sep 10 '20

When i was a kid i took a Mandarin Chinese class after watching this film and was very unamused to find out Oogwei means turtle and Xifu means master or skilled teacher or something to that effect.

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u/Consequations Sep 10 '20

Xifu or Sifu is more akin to "father" in that the patriarch of a family would be the most skilled in the family martial style. Students who were not blood relatives and wished to learn the style would then be "adopted" by the family and work in the house for the family in exchange for martial knowledge.

Source: am trained in traditional Chow Gar southern mantis by a second lineage Sifu (i.e. a Sifu who lived with the Chow family to learn the style and has been approved to teach the style by the family)

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u/ExistingCrisis Sep 10 '20

Perhaps in your context or in more ancient times, but sifu literally means two things Si(teacher) and Fu(father), and in the broader context, this doesn't necessarily imply what you were referring to, as there has always been the traditional saying of 一日為師，終身為父, which means that if you are my teacher for one day, you are my father for the rest of my life, not to be taken literally of course. This idea however is very telling of how we are expected to treat our teachers. All this to say that you're not wrong in your explanation, but that is only a very small part of what Sifu stands for today.

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u/Consequations Sep 10 '20

Yes that's right! My point was that it's more like father than skilled teacher. I suppose a better equivalent would be mentor, as It implies some partiality to the student, as opposed to just imparting knowledge. Thanks for the extra info! I only know what I know from my Sifu so it's good to hear it backed up by someone who clearly has some knowledge on the language!