If zartian is referring to what I think she's talking about, then I would like to set the record here and clear any misunderstandings.
In Korean culture and many Asian cultures, people are often addressed with titles and often in relation to the person speaking. For example, if I address a person in my line of work who has been on the job longer than I have, he or she is my senior and I would call him my 'sunbae'. For the opposite, I would call a junior worker my 'hoobae'. Those titles are often used in everyday life. Other titles that are more often used are "brother" and "sister". It can mean literally my blood brother and sister or someone who is close to me like a brother and sister.
A male calls an older male: 'hyung'
A male calls an older female: 'noona'
A female calls an older male: 'oppa'
A female calls an older female: 'unni'
The word in question that some Korean figure skating fans call Joannie and other figure skaters is 'hyong'. It's similar to 'hyung' which a male will call an older male. It's not used in everyday language and I doubt many older adults would know that term. It is mostly used by younger people as internet slang.
It has nothing to do whether the person we are calling 'hyong' is male/female or whether he or she is masculine or feminine. It has nothing to do with gender! It also does not matter whether the person using the term 'hyong' is male or female. Instead, it's a slang term to represent respect. Kind of like someone is 'boss'. The person is not literally your boss, but in slang terms, we can say boss to mean respect. In even more slangman terms, it's like saying 'HBIC' = Head Beyotch In Charge.
In Korean online culture, netizens (male and female) can call anyone they really like and respect 'hyong'. It can be a singer, athlete, politician, writer, actor, literally anyone. Korean figure skating fans vary widely. (We aren't all mutually exclusive to Yuna
) Many of us call our favorites 'hyong' whether it is Johnny, Stephane, Joannie, D/S, S/S, and so on.
I hope this clears things up and no one is offended by it!
Originally Posted by i love to skate
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), I found she was called as "brother" instead of "sister" in a cute way (no way in a derogatory term).
In most of the Oriental eyes, she belongs to less feminine style (maybe because of her muscular body?) than, let say, Alissa, Mirai, Sasha, Caroline, Ashley, Mao, Yuna, Yukari. Miki seems more likely to belong to the category of Joannie, Carolina style. I am talking about general consensus: there are always exceptions.
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