大 means big. 石 means rock. 責死 means squashes to death. 蟹 means crab. Taken literally, this means “A big rock squashes a crab to death”. What the hell does that mean figuratively? It’s a way of saying “I have no power in this situation, I can’t control the outcome”. It’s similar to the English phrase “It’s out of my control” or “There’s nothing I can do”.
I really like this phrase and so does my Dad. He likes it so much that he named my nephew, his grandson “大石”. Does this mean my nephew is going to become an evil jerk who crushes crabs? Perhaps he’s going to open a crab paste factory and spend all day smashing crabs into a paste.
My Mum doesn’t speak Cantonese. She was first introduced to this phrase when she was on a package tour around Guangzhou with my Dad. For some reason my Dad was made to share a hotel room with some random dude on the tour and my Mum was made to share a room with some random woman on the tour.
My Dad didn’t really think that made sense so he tried to get the hotel clerk to rearrange the rooms so that my Mum and Dad could have a room together. The clerk wouldn’t do it and said “大石責死蟹”. My Dad then explained to my Mum “big rock smashes the crab to death”. She had no idea what he was talking about.
I share my Dad’s enjoyment for this phrase and I hope you do too.