Chinese Idioms

I posted on Facebook few days ago about enjoying a private lesson with a student - "We drank tea, played with the calligraphy brush and talked about the sky (chat in Chinese). A friend really liked the phrase "talking about the sky" and asked me for more examples in Chinese. Here are a couple to start with; I've been wanting to write about them for awhile, so thank you, Kristine, for giving me an incentive. But be forewarned, these two I'm writing today are not poetic or even clever, what I'm hoping to convey is the strong emotional hold that language has on us, and hopefully by being aware of its power we use it more thoughtfully or reinvent it so it liberates instead of imprisons us.


1. "Bu Dong, Bu Xi"（不東不西）, Not East, Not West literally, is used to describe someone who is confused about his/her cultural identity. When I was in college I started to listen to rock 'n roll and hanged out with "foreigners". In the 70s Taiwan was still fairly conservative and because of martial law there weren't many foreign private companies or civilians. The foreigners the Taiwanese saw were mostly military personnel, either based in Taiwan or visiting for R&R.  So Chinese women to be seen with a foreigner often was regarded and treated as a prostitute without any discrimination. (It didn't matter I was wearing a T-shirt, jeans and flip flops.) When I went out with foreign exchanged students from my college, I got many dirty looks, rude remarks and a few near-missed spits, but what irked me the most was the condescending "bu dong, bu xi".  I still have issues with the phrase, maybe I'm still confused about my cultural identity! I think this phrase sounds especially vicious to me because it reflects a cultural chauvinism which I've fought against all my life. Taiwan has changed a lot and I didn't hear this phrase once during my recent visits, in fact, Taiwan today is not only embracing foreign and Han cultures but also Taiwanese, Hakka and Aboriginal cultures.




2. "Le Ji Sheng Bei"（樂極生悲）, Happiness Extreme Born Sorrow literally, the closest translation I came up with is "Curb your enthusiasm!". I remember growing up when my sisters and I were laughing and giggling, my father always "reminded" us, "Be Careful, Le Ji Sheng Bei".  My father was over- protective, like majority Chinese parents, but instead of encouraging kids to freely expressed their happiness, we learned that it was wrong to be "too happy" - something bad is going to happen if you are too happy.  Naturally this idiom can be interpreted and used differently - I do believe happiness and sorrow are two sides of the coin, or the white and black keys of a piano, as a friend quoted recently on Facebook. The Ying and Yang of emotions, the cycles of life.  How about saying "Bei Ji Sheng Le" when someone is going through painful losses - Extreme sorrow gives birth to happiness!


To be continued.