a nice little extract from the book FINAL NOTES from a Great Island -- A Farewell Tour of Singapore by Neil Humphreys (given to me by my dear slapping bed buddy back in tekong)...
But isn't chee bye a wonderful vulgarity? It is truly delightful and easily my favourite Singaporean expletive, precisely because it does not sound like one. It is Hokkien for "vagina", but it is so much jauntier than its British four-letter equivalent, which counds so guttural, particularly when it is said sneeringly through the side of a Londoner's mouth. Like my mother's. That always got my attention when she called me in from the street.
Chee bye, on the other hand, comes across as a formal farewell to the unfamiliar ear. You can almost imagine Jeeves and Wooster crying "Cheerio! Bye!" Such a breezy exclamation, it appears to crop up at the most inappropriate junctures. Two drunks argue in a Toa Payoh coffee shop and, no matter how personal and objectionable the bickering gets, they conclude by shouting "Cheerio! Bye!" Well, that is jolly decent of them, isn't it?
well, just for laughs, eh? =P
