As a native speaker, I wouldn’t misuse this phrase, but explaining it clearly is not straightforward.
“我去” (wǒ qù) is a phrase favored by people from Northern China, especially from Beijing.
Literally translated, it means “I go,” a form of symmetrical Chinese phrase that is almost exclusively used by Beijingers. It is akin to saying 走你！ “Go, you!”
Originally, the phrase had a certain vulgar connotation.（I go….go you…. I am coming!……Are you coming? oh,oh………Interestingly, replacing O with the letter U still sounds the same…I can’t describe it more carefully, but you get the idea, right?）
“我去” (wǒ qù) is actually a shortened form, originally meaning “我操你妈” (wǒ cāo nǐ mā,I am fucking your mother), which is a Chinese curse.
It is too vulgar, so the latter part was omitted, transforming it into another curse “我操” (wǒ cāo,I fuck), but it was still too crude, so it evolved phonetically into “我去” (wǒ qù).
Eventually, it became an exclamation.
During World War II, China and the U.S. were allies, but Chinese and Japanese people looked very similar. So, the U.S. issued a pamphlet to frontline soldiers titled “How to Distinguish Between Chinese and Japanese People.”
I’ve seen this pamphlet and found it not very practical.
Instead, try this method: Take a needle and secretly poke someone. If they yell “wo cao!” ,they’re Chinese.
If they yell “ba ga” (which means “bastard” in Japanese), they’re Japanese.
Similarly, in Cantonese, “Wa sai” is derived from “Wa sai lin mu,” which still means “I am fucking your mother.”
(But most Chinese people don’t know that wa sai actually means dirty, and they use Wa sai as an exclamation, which is almost the same as “wo qu”.)
Such transformations are quite common in Chinese, as with “你丫” (nǐ yā), which is also a shorthand in Beijing dialect.
Originally, it is “你这丫头养的,”meant “You are the illegitimate child of a slave woman!” then,你丫挺的,at last,”你丫”……at last evolved into a prefix for personal pronouns, used only among very close friends.
In Chinese vulgar language, insults typically revolve around the other’s mother or grandmother.
The focus is on women, with a figurative radius extending to 18 generations…
Perhaps because of ancestral worship, insulting as becoming someone’s father or grandfather is considered the highest form of insult.
But in reality, being a father is quite challenging…