Tua33 Phau3 (Big Fire-Cracker)

Tua33 Phau3 is a Penang Hokkien rhyme often recited by scouts in Penang. It literally means big fire cracker, but is also slang to mean a person who talks big or boasts. The rhyme below can be taken at face value, to mean that various fire crackers make different noise, but can also mean that when a big boaster and a smaller boaster meet, the result is a barrage of boasting. Tua33 phau3 phong3!
Se1 phau3 phiang3!
Tua33 phau3 se1 phau33 phing3 phong3 phiang3!

Big fire-cracker goes, "Phong!"
Small fire-cracker goes, "Phiang!"
Big and small fire-crackers go, "Phing Phong Phiang!"

Vocabulary

About this website

Thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye. My hobby is to research information about places, and share the information with people on this website. I started this website on 5 January 2003, and since then, have written about over 20,000 places, mostly in Malaysia and Singapore.

Please use the information on this page as guidance only. While I try my best to provide you information that is as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors. Also, as I might not be able to update some information on time, some of these pages may contain outdated information.