benshengren
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Han Chinese who came to Taiwan from mainland China before 1945, often having experienced Japanese rule, as compared to Han Chinese who came to Taiwan from mainland China after 1945, following the Chinese Civil War (waishengren).
name
Alternative letter-case form of benshengren (“Han Chinese in Taiwan before 1945 and their descendants”).
Example Sentences
- "What surprised me was that it was not a "waishengren" who had such a deep consciousness of Chinese history, but a "bensheng-ren"[...]Many Japanese people residing in Taiwan, including myself, receive a lot of help from benshengren, who are fluent in Japanese. We often hear them complain about waishengren and China, while they appear to cherish Japan."
- "Gu Xionghua remembered when he first got to Taiwan there was no Benshengren in the army."
- "The tsunami of around 1.5 million exiles who accompanied Chiang to Taiwan produced two castes: benshengren — people from this province — and waishengren — people from outside this province."
Etymology
From Mandarin 本省人 (běnshěngrén), literally "original province people" (from the point of view that Taiwan is a province of the Republic of China).
Word Breakdown
- Root: 本省人