Thou Soo and Aih Auan: Communicating Dissatisfaction in a Chinese Malaysian Community

Abstract

People experience dissatisfaction and need to express this dissatisfaction for a variety of reasons. Understanding the communication associated with these common expressions of complaint can illuminate the role of social interaction in maintaining a cultural community. We seek to increase our knowledge of culture, language, and social interaction by exploring folk concepts associated with expressions of dissatisfaction among Chinese Malaysians. We discovered two common folk concepts associated with this type of communication within this community: thou soo and aih auan. Thou soo is a solution-focused speech act, and aih auan, a lamentation about situations that are irreversible and beyond the speaker's control. Thou soo implies power in the speaker, but also carries with it risk and tension. Aih auan affords the speaker a less influential position, but has the potential of creating empathetic bonds with others and providing future wisdom. We explore in detail these folk concepts and their implications for cultural knowledge and community-connected communication in general.