What does "It's Mandarin for purgatory" mean? [closed]

The phrase is taken from a TV series called "Arrow". In the beginning of the first episode Oliver says: "The name of the island they found me on is Lian Yu. It's Mandarin for purgatory."

I've never seen a sentence like this one and don't even know how to google it.

Solution 1:

"It's Mandarin for Purgatory" = "in the Mandarin language the name Lian Yu means purgatory".

Mandarin is one of the Chinese languages. Purgatory is a place where the souls of the dead are purified (by pain) before they go to heaven, in Catholic teachings.

"X is the foreign language word for Y" is a common construction, and Lian Yu literally means purgatory in Mandarin. It's a way of conveying that the island is not a nice place.