In the U.S., if we want to challenge someone or say that they are afraid, we call them chicken.  However, you do not want to make the mistake of calling someone, especially a female, chicken, in China.  While some people will not understand why you would call them chicken to imply that they are fearful, if they are a female, they could become really offended because the common Chinese slang expression for hooker is "ji nui", which, literally, means, chicken girl.