monk & umbrella

I was watching a Cantonese drama and there was this metaphorical phrase 'monk holds umbrella'. Do you know the meaning?

You see, a monk has no hair. And when he holds the umbrella above his head, he can't see the sky, right? So it means no hair, no sky. But in Mandarin or Cantonese, hair and law have the same sound (fa in pinyin and faat in cantonese).

So, the meaning is wu fa wu tian (無法無天) or lawless.


Don't pour your money into the sea

You know, there is a HK advertisement in which people carry boxes of money and pour it into the sea. What do you think it is about?

Actually it wants tell people not to gamble. It says 'gambling is like pouring money into the sea'. It makes use of two words of the same sound. Gamble and pour have the same sound in Cantonese - doh.