I believe that many people like watching Hong Kong dramas as much as I do. In the dramas we have seen, the phrase "I went to sell salted duck eggs" often appears. When I watched it, I didn't know what this sentence meant, which made us unable to understand the following story. Let me come to science popularization for you.
Details 0 1 explanation of words
Literally, it is a vendor who specializes in salted duck eggs. It is also a proverb in Cantonese, which means death and has the same meaning as selling duck eggs in Minnan Suzhou. Such as: "XXX went to sell salted duck eggs." It means XXX is dead.
02 dialect taboo
China people have been extremely taboo about "death" since ancient times, and they don't speak the word "death", so there are words such as death, death, passing away and going to heaven. Salted duck eggs can't be "sold" to Lao Guang casually. Visitors had better do as the Romans do, and avoid "disaster" from their mouths and making jokes.
Other euphemisms for death in Cantonese
To put it mildly, there are: go to Zuo, Xiang Zuo, Die Zuo ........................................................................................................................................................