Meaning:
“气” means to “be angry,” “成” means to “become,” and “河豚” means “puffer fish.” This term, coined by Chinese netizens, is a metophorical saying that depicts someone who is very angry. Also known as the blowfish, the puffer fish has the remarkable ability to expand its body extremely quickly when faced with danger, unveiling it’s long poisonous spikes that cover its body. People without knowledge sometimes mistake the threatened reaction of the fish for being irritated and angry, and came up with the saying, which literally says someone is “so angry that he or she becomes a puffer fish.”
Example:
A: 你为什么生气？
Nǐ wèishénme shēngqì?
Why are you so angry?
B: 昨天小丽约我看电影，我买好票在电影院等她，结果被放鸽子了。
Zuótiān xiǎolì yuē wǒ kàn diànyǐng, wǒ mǎi hǎo piào zài diànyǐngyuàn děng tā, jiéguǒ bèi fànggēzi le。
Xiao Li asked me to go for a movie with her yesterday, so I bought the tickets and waited for her at the theater. But I got stood up.
A: 难怪你气成河豚了。
Nánguài nǐ qì chéng hétún le。
No wonder you are exasperated.
(First editor: Debra Li)