by Marco Tsang
If you have lived in Hong Kong for a certain period of time, you may have noticed that people use curse words in their daily conversation all the time. Despite the use of foul language or slang words may be seen as rude and impolite by most of the people around the world, we cannot deny that the existence of foul language is one of the most important elements in constructing a language. Some may have misconception that swearing in daily conversation is the result of poor education and lack of self-cultivation. However, the fact is that the use of foul language is common among HongKongers in different social class. Sometimes we may see an elegant lady who dressed properly and definitely coming from the upper class in Central swears on the street with her friends. Swearing is part of our language and there is no judge about the use of it.
The five most common Chinese characters used by Hong Kong people, when pronounced in Cantonese, are diu (屌), gau (鳩), lan (撚), tsat (柒) and hai (閪). They are considered censored language and forbidden to use on television and broadcast. The first one diu means literally ‘fuck’ in English language. When it is placed in the first of the sentence without other phrases, it expresses the idea of anger, shock, and excitement etc. But the meaning would be changed to disgrace, disrespect and insulting if a subject ‘nei’ (you) is included. Using diu is the most common way of cursing in Cantonese. Yet it is accepted by society to use diu even on TV shows in Taiwan as it has the different meaning of ‘cool’ in their usage. Tracing back to the origin of this word, diu was referring to the male reproductive organ and it has evolved as a verb in 1900s. While diu being the most recognizable vulgar word, the other four words either means sex organs or have a negative meaning. These five words are five strong and powerful vulgar words in Cantonese but it has become more popular and usual in the usage of Cantonese.
The existence of foul language enriches the attributes of our language. Swearing is the way of indicating the intimacy between friends or in different social groups. It is not hard to find secondary school students, construction workers or even senior workers in an international company using foul language to communicate with their classmates, friends and colleagues. It is a way of establishing the bonding between individuals and it could address the relationship of ‘pal’, ‘mate’. However, this form of showing closeness is restrained between peers or people with similar age only. Of course it is not appropriate to curse with parents, teachers, superior who have a higher social status than us when it comes to swearing.
Swearing is just natural feature of our vernacular which allows us to express our emotions. According to the journal from Language Sciences, it stated that swearing is not a result of limited vocabulary. It is an indicator of healthy verbal abilities instead of covering for language deficiencies. It is what makes our vernacular special and different from standard Chinese language. It should be preserved as it shapes the identity of us being a Hongkonger.
See reference:
Language Culture and Society in Hong Kong (and beyond) 
The use of foul language in Hong Kong is very common as we always use foul language to express ourselves. However, I think the most special characteristic of foul language in Cantonese is that we can add multiple foul words in a short sentence to emphasis . For example, we say ‘你好蠢’, which means ‘You are stupid’ in Cantonese. However, we can add multiple foul words into this sentence to emphasise the meaning, such as by saying ‘你好撚柒鳩蠢’. In the above example, three foul words ‘撚’, ‘柒’, ‘鳩’ are added between the sentence for emphasising the fact that someone is stupid. We can be able to add more then one foul word in a single sentence, and this can hardly be seen in other foul languages around the world. I think this can be one reason that why foul language in Cantonese is that unique.
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This is really an interesting topic to discuss. As you have mentioned, foul language or slang words may be considered as impolite or rude. And some people in Hong Kong still think traditionally, they think if someone swears, they must be the saucy people who have poor education and job. I think this is a misunderstanding for those who use foul language in Hong Kong. No matter what their jobs are, or how many education do they receive, many of them would use foul language. Also, adding foul language in our daily conversation is the usual thing in Hong Kong. It is not impolite at all. As long as we get used to this special, talking culture, we would not consider foul language is influencing Cantonese in a bad way. Instead, according to your point, having this unique culture, we should preserve it. Therefore, I totally agree with your ideas about foul language in Hong Kong.
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