茶壶盖 (updated - see below)
We came across young boys in Wuhan with a peculiar looking hairstyle. The hair is shaven all over except for two circles at the front and back. The back circle is sometimes allowed to grow long into a bogan-style tail. These hairstyles are different to some of those pictured above, as the latter have tufts on the sides as well.
On returning to Australia, I realised I’d never learnt the Chinese name for this hairstyle. Many Chinese people I’ve asked since have said that they didn’t know. Anyhow, the other evening Ying, Asher and I were out for a walk, and we saw a Chinese mother and son - complete with peculiar hairstyle! I asked her what the name of the hairstyle was. She replied “茶壶盖”, with a distinctive Beijing accentuation, rendering it “茶壶盖儿”. She explained that it literally refers to the lid of a teapot.
I was quite pleased with myself for finding this out. It’s weird, when I googlesearch 茶壶盖 I seem to mainly get teapots, not hairstyles.
I’m bringing this article to the front page of this blog because of this startling update: Infants in Wuhan don’t wear nappies. They’re too expensive. Instead they learn to respond to their parents whistling to them when it’s time to go, then they’re held over the gutter whilst the parent exercises extreme patience waiting. The pants they wear look like the below, and are called 开裆裤.
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