土 [tu]: Pictograph of object rising through the earth.

The Chinese character of 1) soil,earth,dirt; 2) land,ground; 3) uncultured,unstylish.

鄉土 [xiang-tu]: The very enduring social relations and cultural moods grounded on the structures of rurality, also used as the central concept in 鄉土中國[xiang-tu zhong-guo], or in English, From the soil, a seminal book on China’s rurality and urbanity by the Chinese anthropologist Fei Xiao-tong.

土豪 [tu-hao]: Rich guys with poor aesthetic tastes. Currently a very popular word in China’s youth culture and social media. Historically it was an ideologically loaded term for the rural landlords, who had been positioned as the enemies of people in the class struggles and rural land reforms during 1940s and 1950s in China.

童[tong]

The Chinese character of (1) child, children, (2) unmarried, virgin, (3) etymologically, serious crime requiring celibate servitude.

童工[tong-gong]: child labour

童男/童女[tong-nan/tong-nv]: male virgin/female virgin

童養媳[tong-yang-xi]: child daughter-in-law. A pre-adolescent daughter of a poor family sold to a richer family as a servant, who would later be married to the son of the richer family, when both children reach puberty. This was quite observable in pre-1911, rural China.

童黨[tong-dang]: gangs of children and adolescents often involved in ‘anti-social’ behaviours. A quite noted topic in the news and films in Hong Kong.