I understood that the phrase "Bai tuo!" in Chinese means something like "Come on!" spoken in an exasperated tone of voice -- as in, "Come on, you're blocking the road!" Local elections are coming up, and advertising trucks and scooters are driving around featuring not only billboards promoting various candidates, but also loudspeakers which convey the candidates' messages to everyone within earshot. I don't understand much of these, but one day I heard one clearly saying "Bai tuo! Bai tuo!" This confused me. Was the candidate saying "Come on, how can you even think about voting for that other guy? He's got a mole on his face with two-inch long hairs growing out of it!"?
I asked Chieni about this, and the truth is less hilarious. "Bai tuo!" is actually a formal way of saying "please". If you say it in an exasperated tone of voice, then it means "Come on!" – or perhaps actually "Please!" But the candidate I heard was saying it nicely, so she was simply asking people to vote for her, please.
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