I randomly noticed today that South Korean girl group BLACKPINK has a very elegant Chinese name: 粉墨, which both allude to the colors pink and black (粉 refers to 粉红, as in “powdery red” while 墨 refers to black ink), and also is the first two characters of 粉墨登场, which originates from Chinese opera performers assuming their roles on stage in full makeup (the powders and the inks). Today 粉墨登场 more refer to people putting on acts with ulterior motives.
But 粉墨 back translates to “pink black”, which briefly made me wonder why the order of the colors got reversed. But as soon as I translated “black pink” into Chinese in my head, I understood.
黑粉, the most straightforward translation for “black pink”, is slang for anti-fan. 粉丝 is the Mandarin transliteration for “fans”, and 黑 has various negative connotations (not to mention 黑特油 is very old slang that’s transliterated from “hate you”).
While I personally think it would be funny for BLACKPINK to be called 黑粉 in Chinese, that’s definitely not abrasive image they go for.
There are actual legions of BLACKPINK anti-fans, which we would refer to as 粉墨黑粉. But just think, they could have been 黑粉黑粉 instead :P