Martian language - Wikipedia
Martian language (Chinese: 火星文 ; pinyin: huǒxīng wén ; lit. 'Martian script'), sometimes also called brain-disabled characters (simplified Chinese: 脑残体 ; traditional Chinese: 腦殘體 ; pinyin: nǎocán tǐ ), is the nickname of unconventional representation of Chinese characters online by various methods. For example, "一個人的時候" (yīgèréndeshíhòu, "When one is alone") can be changed into "ㄧㄍ人ㄉ時候" since the word ㄍ (gē) is consonant of 個 and the word ㄉ (dē) is consonant of the word 的 in bopomofo.[ 1]
The etymology of the word, "Martian language", is mostly believed to come from the 2001 Hong Kong comedy Shaolin Soccer, in which Sing (Stephen Chow) tells Mui (Zhao Wei): "Go back to Mars. The Earth is so dangerous."[ 2]
Martian language originated in Taiwan with the introduction of Chinese input methods and online games. It later began to catch on in mainland China when online games like Audition Online were introduced in China.[ 3] [ 4]
