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老不死 == 老而不死 being old, but not die; It implies some old guy should die as soon as possible, rather than stay alive, wasting food and hurting others... etc. It's used to curse some old people whom you hate and consider to be useless to others. It doesn't mean Chinese think old is bad, instead Chinese people have a tradition to support old people.. Whereas, ...

I just want to supplement Fivesheep's answer with some examples. The closest equivalent I can find for 老不死 in English is "old fart". This is a very disrespectful way of addressing a senior person whom you despise. Example: 那老不死的为什么还不搬走? Why haven't that old fart move out of the house? Although the term 老不死 is usually used in a derogatory manner, ...

In China, if you call anyone as 老不死, you are not praising him as "old and not died". In fact, you are asking him "why don't you go die?". So we think it's so impolite to call anyone 老不死, especially call elderly. Besides, there is a saying "老而不死是为贼“, it means that if someone is so old but never go die, then there must be something weird with him. Thus, nobody ...