神马都是浮云 - saying

ouyangjun116

April 30, 2012, 02:54 AM posted in General Discussion

I learned this saying just the other day.  I had seen it a few times on Weibo and never had the motivation to find out what it means, but last night I was in the DVD store and saw a movie titled "神马都是浮云", so I decided I should figure out what this means.  

According to Baidu Baike:

网络流行语，什么都是浮云的谐音，意思是什么都不值得一提，有抱怨感叹之意。

In short... like many of the jokes in Chinese the first part is a play on the language 神马 and 什么 sounding the same.  The meaning is that something is not worth mentioning, not worth worrying about... on Baidu Baike it's translated into English as such (I don't even know what #3 means):

1.All things are of no consequence just like floating clouds.2.Everything is nothing.3.Kamiuma are floating clouds.

So the next time my girlfriend gives complains about me going out drinking with my friends and wasting money, I can respond: "神马都是浮云!" and proceed to the bar.

Cheers!