# Wanderlust



## JacOfHearts

Hi there!

I was curious about how to say 'wanderlust' in Chinese, or at least a Chinese equivalent to it. I looked it up myself and found words that meant anywhere fro "flowing stream" to "addictive leaving" and I wanted an answer from a person who understands rather than an online dictionary 

Can I have a pronunciation for it as well, please? 
When it comes to Chinese, I know very, very little. ^_^;; The language seems so interesting to me, but diving right into it seems like dangerous waters. 

Thanks so much!


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## Rockx

Hello,

"wanderlust" is explained as “旅行癖” In both my English-Chinese and English-Japanese dictionary. (you know that Chinese and Japanese use identical characters for some words)
"旅行癖(lv3 xing2 pi4) is fine, but not very elegant for me. I prefer "浪游者(lang4 you2 zhe3)” or "放浪者(fang4 lang4 zhe3)".

I'm glad you have interest in Chinese, hope this link can provide useful information.


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## Ghabi

Hi! As usual, it's a wild-goose chase to discuss an expression without context. What's on your mind? We need to know. Are you thinking of something like "I was driven by a sense of Wanderlust in those heady days of my youth, backpacking around the world to visit weird places like China and .... etc etc"? Or something entirely different?


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## b.davis

Hi guys. I was looking for a Chinese translation of the word "Wanderlust" and I found this question. 
I hope you can help me, cause I want to tattoo it so I have to be sure it's right ;-)

The kind of "Wanderlust" I'm talking about it's exactly what Ghabi wrote: 





> "I was driven by a sense of Wanderlust in those heady days of my youth,  backpacking around the world to visit weird places like China and ....  etc etc"


A strong desire to travel. But it's not about wanting to, it's more like needing it (if you know what I mean).

I asked a Chinese native speaker and he said that 漫游癖  &  流浪癖  are derogatory terms, while 旅游热  is neutral. I asked for a word that expressed a positive meaning and he said "漫游" - but i think it's weird cause I study Chinese and i would translate it as "Wander". 

Can you guys help a travel junkie out here? 
Thanks!


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## xiaolijie

If I want a tattoo, I'd use 游子(fairly poetic): a wanderer. Note that the 游 here is the same one you've repeatedly seen in many of the above combinations. 



> I asked for a word that expressed a positive meaning and he said "漫游" - but i think it's weird cause I study Chinese and i would translate it as "Wander".


Don't go too literally on foreign expressions but try to get the "feel" for them as the native do (It's difficult, I know, so I'm just saying...). Anyway, if I see "漫游" as a tattoo, I'd probably think of "浪游的生命", which is much more poetic than just "wandering"


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## b.davis

Thanks! I didn't think of 游子 ..I like it (as long as it's poetic)!
So you wouldn't use/tattoo 漫游癖? Is it really derogatory as that guy said?


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## xiaolijie

b.davis said:


> So you wouldn't use/tattoo 漫游癖? Is it really derogatory as that guy said?


No, 漫游 itself is suggestive of choice, but with 癖 in it, it sounds just too concrete, matter-of-fact to me, beside being more like something you'd try to get rid of .


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## b.davis

Definitely not the case  Thanks!


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## enjoy630

漫游癖 sounds really strange and harsh to me , and I don't think it can be used to describe a person as a noun(more like a adjective). I consider myself more or like a wanderlust, and I'm often called a ‘‘旅游咖'，which I believe comes from Taiwanese dialect and it has the tendency to become gradually widely used. If I were you, i'd use this word.


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## b.davis

Thank you! I'll write down this one too 
Wanderlust is a noun, though.. A desire(lust) to wander.
I wouldn't use 漫游癖 to describe a person, but to describe the desire of this person ;-) (sorry for any misunderstanding, english is not my native language either!)


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## Lucia_zwl

Hi guys! What about 逍遥? I think it's a perfect tattoo.

逍遥：悠闲自得，无拘无束。
It's kind of attitude towards life, it means free and unconstrained, esp. in spiritual. But maybe the concept is larger than “wanderlust”, and I think "the strong desire of travelling" is only part of 逍遥.

It's also part of Chinese philosopy, from 《逍遥游》by Zhuangzi(庄子).


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## evchen

Hi JacOfHearts,
i wonder if your original meaning is "the one who addicts to trip", "big fan of travelling" or just "loves travelling a lot".
the noun i would use will be "旅(lv3)游(you2)控(kong4)". For the reason that the character "控" is becoming really popular recently, and it means the very desire to something. We usually put it behind the nouns or verbs. For example, 游戏控= people who love games a lot. 美剧控=big fan of American series, etc.

I think this kind of use may be influnced by Japanese, so strictly speaking, it's not that formal, but sounds like fashion and intersting.


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## SuperXW

evchen said:


> the noun i would use will be "旅(lv3)游(you2)控(kong4)". For the reason that the character "控" is becoming really popular recently, and it means the very desire to something. We usually put it behind the nouns or verbs. For example, 游戏控= people who love games a lot. 美剧控=big fan of American series, etc.
> 
> I think this kind of use may be influnced by Japanese, so strictly speaking, it's not that formal, but sounds like fashion and intersting.


I don't like this idea. 控 is popular mostly among the anime lovers, which group has a very different personality to the travelers. Such a combination makes me feel strange.


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## evchen

SuperXW said:


> I don't like this idea. 控 is popular mostly among the anime lovers, which group has a very different personality to the travelers. Such a combination makes me feel strange.




I searched on the internet and found this explanation,
“控”源于英文单词complex（情结）的前头音（con），日本人借用过来（コン），按照日元语法形成“某某控”的语言景观重构。“ 

Even though this kind of use is indeed originated from ACG(Animation、Comic、Game) fields, I think as it has been frequently used, resulting to the current situation of its popular and common use, rather than particularly for ACG fans.

Just like another Chinese character, "萌". In traditional chinese, it has several meanings, but no such meaning of "cute" or "adorable" to describe somebody or something. With the frequent use of it, however, more and more people, no matter whether they are ACG fans or not, tend to spontaneously accept it and expand its meaning. 

I think each language bears tolerance of other languages. And that's why this language can be kept, inherited and developed.

In addition, in Chinese, "癖" sounds derogatory somehow, such as sort of weird diseases. I think "控" would be more interesting and lively.


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## SuperXW

evchen said:


> I searched on the internet and found this explanation,
> “控”源于英文单词complex（情结）的前头音（con），日本人借用过来（コン），按照日元语法形成“某某控”的语言景观重构。“
> 
> Even though this kind of use is indeed originated from ACG(Animation、Comic、Game) fields, I think as it has been frequently used, resulting to the current situation of its popular and common use, rather than particularly for ACG fans.
> ……
> I think each language bears tolerance of other languages. And that's why this language can be kept, inherited and developed.
> 
> In addition, in Chinese, "癖" sounds derogatory somehow, such as sort of weird diseases. I think "控" would be more interesting and lively.


I know. I would accept this as a younger person's choice. But still, it's not that popular among all the people. Many elder travelers still call themselves 旅游爱好者. They have no idea what is 旅游控.
Not every new word would be accepted by all the people all the time. i.e. 萌, I don't think it can ever be accepted by certain people. One important reason is, we do have an exact word for "cute" already: 可爱. Using a Japanese form to replace the original one can't happen to everyone. 
For words like "fans", "maniac", "lust", we traditionally lack such expressions. This is why we created(borrowed) 粉, 控, 狂人, 达人...etc.
Yeah, we still have these choices: 旅行狂 (travel maniac), 旅游达人(travel expert) etc.


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## evchen

SuperXW said:


> I know. I would accept this as a younger person's choice. But still, it's not that popular among all the people. Many elder travelers still call themselves 旅游爱好者. They have no idea what is 旅游控.



JacOfHeart's age is 17...if the web shows correctly~
"旅游爱好者" is conventional, but the meaning of "lust" is not exposed.


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## 南島君

I had never been classified as "old" or "elder", yet I have totally no idea of 旅遊控 or any other form of xx控。 (I sometimes feel like i am a 山頂洞人)
 Still, if you insist to use this form, you might want to make yourself  more explanative, to let people like me to understand 控 is actually a  loanword from Japanese, which turned out to be an earlier borrowing from  English, where in Chinese it's usually well understood with 情結 (e.g.  戀母情結、拿破侖情結).


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## b.davis

Thanks for your suggestions guys!


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