Sousa chinensis

Adult Chinese white dolphin swimming off the coast of Lantau Island, Hong Kong.

The Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin (Sousa chinensis) is a species of humpback dolphin inhabiting coastal waters of the eastern Indian and western Pacific Oceans. This species is often referred to as the Chinese White Dolphin in mainland China, Macao, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore as a common name. In Hong Kong, boat trips to visit the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins have been running since the 1990s. In 1997: The Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin became the Official Mascot of the 1997 sovereignty changing ceremonies in Hong Kong. So therefore within the Autonomous Constituent country of Hong Kong (HKSAR) it is the designate Subnational animal of the Nationalist Hongkongese Devolved Home-State-Local Rule.

Cantonese slang

The Cantonese language has a slang expression wu gei bak gei (often written as 烏忌白忌, "black taboo white taboo") which means someone or something is a bad omen or a nuisance. The phrase originates from the Cantonese fisher people, because they claim the dolphins eat the fish in their nets. However, in formal Chinese, it should be written as 烏鱀白鱀, with the gei originally in old Chinese, meaning dolphins. The wu refers to the finless porpoises, which are black, and the bak, white, referring to Chinese river dolphins. These two species often interrupt and ruin the fishermen's catch. As years passed, because "dolphin" sounds the same as "bad luck", the meaning of the phrase changed. However, in Cantonese, wu refers to the calves of Chinese white dolphin and bak refers to the adults. Nowadays, dolphins are not called gei anymore, but 海豚 (hai tun), literally meaning "sea pig", with none of the negative connotations for pig found in English.