Season 01 Compilation 10
Compilation 10
Mosaic of China Season 01 - Chinese Phrases
Original Date of Release: 08 Sep 2020.
If you were asked to name your favourite phrase in Chinese, would you choose something you hear every day in China like 差不多, 哎哟, and 没有? Or would you choose something deeper which reveals layers of meaning like 一山不容二虎, 养儿防老 and 可遇而不可求?
In today's final compilation episode from Season 1, the guests discuss their favourite words and phrases in Chinese. So get ready to make notes in case you want steal any of them for yourself!
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[Trailer]
Sabrina CHEN: 吸猫 [Xīmāo]. 吸 [xī] means ‘suck’, 猫 [māo] is ‘cat’.
[Intro]
OF: Welcome to Mosaic of China, a podcast about people who are making their mark in China. I'm your host Oscar Fuchs.
And today's episode is the the final special compilation from Season 01. If you've been following these ten compilations from the start, you'll remember that the whole reason I put them together was as a way to buy me some time for the world to return back to normal before starting to record Season 02. Well, I said that back in April, and it's now September. And it hasn't quite happened, has it? But in the last few weeks I have done some recordings, and I'm happy to say that I have recorded half of the next season already. I don't record the episodes in the same order of release, so I still have a busy few weeks trying to fill in all the gaps. But it's looking like the new series will be ready before the end of the year. So please enjoy this last compilation from Season 01. It's all about the guests favourite words or phrases in Chinese. And I'll be back before you know it with more in the run-up to Season 02.
[Main]
[Voiceover]
OF: Angie Wu, the jewellery craftsman from Episode 18.
[Clip]
AW: When I grew up, my mom always cared about inner beauty. She was always trying to use this word called 气质 [qìzhí]. If you separate the word, it means ‘the quality of your 气 [qì]’. It's like inner beauty, grace and elegance. And it's something - my mom would say - something you cannot buy, you have to nurture it, you have to build it, and it has to be from childhood. Like, if it's outer beauty, it’s something that doesn't last. So she always wanted us to build this inner beauty: 气质 [qìzhí].
[Voiceover]
OF: Noah Sheldon, the documentary filmmaker from Episode 09.
[Clip]
NS: I have a least favourite, 差不多 [chàbùduō].
OF: Ah, 差不多 [chàbùduō]?
NS: I absolutely despise that.
OF: Really? Oh that's actually one of my favourites.
NS: In terms of working and stuff, and if you're really going for excellence, it's this really dangerous kind of idea of ‘It's good enough’.
OF: Right. Yes, I mean, there is a time for 差不多 [chàbùduō] and there’s a time for “No, get it right”.
NS: Right.
OF: And obviously, in your line of work, there’s more perfectionism than a 差不多 [chàbùduō].
NS: Yeah. But you're right, you’re right. There is a very positive side of it. It's just… yeah.
OF: When you don't want to hear it, it’s the last thing you wanna hear.
NS: Exactly, exactly.
[Voiceover]
OF: Lissanthea Taylor, the pain expert from Episode 28.
[Clip]
LT: 差不多 [Chàbùduō]. I’ll tell you why it's my favourite phrase.
OF: Yes.
LT: So I'm Australian. So we have this great saying in Australia like “She'll be right, mate”. Which basically means “I don't really care”.
OF: Right.
LT: It’s someone else's problem. I've done enough. And to me, that's 差不多 [chàbùduō]. Just doing enough.
OF: Yeah.
[Voiceover]
OF: Nini Sum, the artist from Episode 16.
[Clip]
NS: 自然而然 [Zìrán’ érrán]. It's like very Zen, and self-satisfying, and natural flow. You cannot force things to happen, but rather feel the feeling, and go with the flow, and be true to yourself.
[Voiceover]
OF: Greg Nance, the ultramarathon athlete from Episode 23.
[Clip]
GN: 一山不容二虎 [Yīshān bùróng èrhǔ], which is ‘one mountain cannot have two tigers'. And for me, that's a great parable about leadership. Ultimately, you need accountability and you need people responsible. Just like that one tiger on that one mountain.
OF: Is that something about having two Co-Founders?
GN: It might be.
OF: Oh dear.
[Voiceover]
OF: Jorge Luzio, the marketer for Sprite from Episode 05.
[Clip]
JL: Well, honestly - and I feel very bad because I don't speak very good Chinese - I would say that amongst my phrases - which is very, very few - is 黄陂南路/复兴路 [Huángpi Nánlù/Fùxīng Lù], which is my street.
[Voiceover]
OF: Astrid Poghosyan, the violinist from Episode 04.
[Clip]
AP: 烦死了 [Fánsǐle], it's one of the most frequent things I keep saying all the time, 烦死了 [fánsǐle]. It’s really hard to even translate what it is, it’s just when you get really frustrated or something, you just keep saying 烦死了 [fánsǐle].
OF: I've only heard 太麻烦了 [tài máfanle], but…
AP: 太麻烦 [tài máfan], 麻烦 [máfan] is also 烦 [fán], it’s the same 烦 [fán], it’s ‘annoying’.
OF: Yeah.
AP: Yeah.
OF: Well there you go, I'm gonna switch now. I'm gonna say 烦死了 [fánsǐle].
AP: Yes, please.
[Voiceover]
OF: Lexie Comstock, the cookie supplier from Episode 20.
[Clip]
LC: So I have a very… I'm very lucky, I have amazing neighbours, and I have a very strong relationship with them. And they always are asking me, no matter the time of day, no matter if I've just seen them, like, five minutes before… 吃饭了吗？[chīfànle ma?], which is like “Have you eaten”? And I just think that's so sweet. I'm like “Yeah, thank you for checking up on me, and making sure I'm staying well fed.”
[Voiceover]
OF: Stephane de Montgros, the events company CEO from Episode 19.
[Clip]
SDM: So had you asked me 10 years ago, I would have told you easily 没有问题 [méiyǒu wèntí], like “OK, let's move forward and get things done”. And I think that's changing. I think ten years ago, there's never something that cannot be done, it's just a matter of adding more people to get things done. Now you have to do things the proper way. So it's a very dynamic environment.
OF: So then, if it would have been ‘没有问题 [méiyǒu wèntí]’ which is ‘no problem’, is your favourite phrase now ‘有很多问题 [yǒu hěnduō wèntí]’?
SDM: ‘有很多问题 [Yǒu hěnduō wèntí]’… I wouldn't say that. Obviously, there's always ways to get things done. But you have to play by the books.
[Voiceover]
OF: Yael Farjun, the historical researcher from Episode 12.
[Clip]
YF: 哎哟 [Āiyō].
OF: 哎哟 [Āiyō].
YF: I don't even notice that I’m using it, you know, it's so natural for me now.
OF: And it's like “Oh my god” or, how would you describe it?
YF: Yeah, something like “Oh, gosh” or something like that.
OF: Yeah, usually out of frustration, isn't it?
YF: Yes.
[Voiceover]
OF: Lori Li, the private club GM from Episode 10.
[Clip]
LL: I like 时髦 [shímáo]. 时髦 [Shímáo], actually the word comes from the 汉 [Hàn] Dynasty, the original meaning is ‘outstanding people’. The next meaning is about the people who are ‘in’ in society. So I like this word, because it's really a city feeling like Shanghai. Between ‘style’ and ‘fashion’.
[Voiceover]
OF: Srinivas Yanamandra, the compliance leader from Episode 15.
[Clip]
SY: I don't know whether you’ve ever heard that word, it's ‘duāng’. Actually in 2015, Jackie Chan - when he was doing a kind of an interview for a shampoo ad, it seems - he simply said that "My hair, after applying this shampoo, looks like ‘duāng’!”
[Voiceover]
OF: Sebastien Denes, the inclusion advocate from Episode 11.
[Clip]
SD: 听不懂 [tīng bù dǒng] - “I don't understand.” I love this one, because if you say “I don’t understand” - for example in France, my home country, or I don't know, maybe in England - people look at you and say “Ah, another one that comes, and he doesn't understand the language”. And here, it's a completely different attitude. They laugh with you. And sometimes they keep on talking Chinese, and you're just like “听不懂 [tīng bù dǒng]” again, right? Or, many times they make the effort to make themselves understood, right? So I like this contradiction of a word that you speak in Chinese, saying “I don't get it”, and the doors that this opens.
[Voiceover]
OF: Eric Olander, the journalist from Episode 03.
[Clip]
EO: In Chinese, they have these things called 成语 [chéngyǔ], and you will speak in these idioms and these phrases that can get a very complex idea into just normally 4 characters. So they have one called 养儿防老 [yǎnger fánglǎo], which means that the young, when you grow up, you are taking care of your parents. And I just absolutely love how in this culture, elderly people are cared for and looked after and valued. And in my culture, for the most part, older people oftentimes are not.
[Voiceover]
OF: Octo Cheung, the fashion designer from Episode 30.
[Clip]
OC: 厚德载物，行稳致远 [Hòudé zǎiwù, xíngwěn zhìyuǎn]. That means to be good in life you need to have a good personality, you need to be kind to attract things towards you. But you need to walk steadily to walk far. When I translate it into English, it looks a little bit stupid.
[Voiceover]
OF: Tom Barker, the diplomat from Episode 25.
[Clip]
TB: This has been my favourite word since day three of being here. It's 外网 [wàiwǎng], I'm probably brutally mispronouncing it. But it's the external internet. You know, we're in China where you have the firewall. So you have the internal internet, and then you have 外网 [wàiwǎng], the internet the rest of the world has. And I just love the fact that they've had to invent a word for what the rest of us just call ‘the internet’.
[Voiceover]
OF: Roz Coleman, the theatre producer from Episode 22.
[Clip]
RC: I am going to tell you a phrase that was taught to me by James, my boxing instructor: 天下没有不散的宴席 [Tiānxià méiyǒu búsàn de yànxí]. So when I asked James what it means, he grinned his head off and he said “Don’t party, won't finish”! And he threw his head back and laughed. And I was like “What does it mean don’t party won’t finish?” I was like “I love it, I love it, I love it”. Actually, what it means is, 'all good things must come to an end’ or ‘in the whole world, there is not one party that will not finish’.
[Voiceover]
OF: Philippe Gas, the Disney resort CEO from Episode 01.
[Clip]
PG: Forgive my accent. I know you’re gonna look at me and say “what is he saying?”… 周末愉快 [zhōumò yúkuài], have a good weekend. It was actually the first words I learned in Chinese. And I was known for saying 周末愉快. I was very active in Chinese on Fridays, typically, that was what I could use. The other one, has been coming later, is 好久不见 [hǎojiǔ bùjiàn], long time no see. Just because it’s good to reunite with friends and people you haven't met for a long time. So I like this sentence. I like the way it sounds.
[Voiceover]
OF: Sanford Browne, the biochemist from Episode 29.
[Clip]
SB: 千里之行，始於足下 [Qiānlǐ zhī xíng, shǐ yú zúxià], which roughly translates into: ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a first step’. And that, to me, is a very inspiring way to really think about, when you want to do something, and you're not exactly sure how to do it, begin.
[Voiceover]
OF: Maple Zuo, the comedian from Episode 02.
[Clip]
MZ: My favourite one is called 道 [dào]. It's like the truth of the universe. I don't know how to translate that one.
OF: Yes.
MZ: But it's like, it's vague. You don’t know. Sometimes you can get it, sometimes you don't get it. I want to study more about it, and then translate it in the future.
OF: Right. I think English speakers probably know the Japanese reading of 道 [dào] which is ‘do’, because we know judo and kendo, aikido.
MZ: Oh, yeah, yeah. That's the 道 [dào]. But then the Japanese didn't pronounce it right..! Or they changed the pronunciation.
OF: Yeah.
[Voiceover]
OF: Gina Li, the invention company CEO from Episode 06.
[Clip]
GL: 辛苦了 [xīnkǔle]. Because that's a phrase that is nothing about the result, nothing about anything you do, the purpose. It’s just about the effort, and the time you put in. And it's including so much of, like, caring and love. It’s like relieving. And sometimes people just say 辛苦了，加油 [xīnkǔle, jiāyóu] and that's like, a lot of power.
OF: Yeah.
[Voiceover]
OF: Sabrina Chen, the dance programme curator from Episode 26.
[Clip]
SC: 吸猫 [Xīmāo]. 吸 [xī] means ‘suck’, 猫 [māo] is ‘cat’. Actually, you know, 吸猫 [xīmāo] is a word coming from… taking drugs. Because cats are so adorable, and adored by so many young people in China. So sometimes we feel like we are addicted to them.
OF: So it's like taking drugs, but the drug is a cat.
SC: Yeah.
[Voiceover]
OF: Michael Zee, the Instagram influencer from Episode 07.
[Clip]
MZ: I really like the word 腐 [fǔ], as in 豆腐 [dòufu]. In Chinese, it means ‘rotten’. But in another sense, that word can also be something that's delicious. You’ve got 腐乳 [fǔrǔ], which is like ‘rotten breast milk’, or ‘a mother's milk rotten’. And actually in Chinese culture, this word is used a lot of times for things that are just preserved or pickled or fermented. And actually in a Western sense ‘rotten’ is always pretty bad. Rotten eggs or a rotten person. The word ‘rotten’, ‘rotten wood’, there’s always a negative connotation. Whereas in Chinese culture, it's not necessarily bad. It's such a complex thing, this character. It can mean tasty things. And it can mean rotten women who are obsessed with gay men. Or it could just mean tofu.
OF: Wow, OK, that one is hard to unpack.
MZ: Yeah.
[Voiceover]
OF: Yang Yi, the broadcaster from Episode 21.
[Clip]
YY: I usually say 好吧 [Hǎo ba]. It’s a little bit like “Oh, that's fine”.
OF: Right.
YY: And the meaning behind it is “Maybe it could be better”.
[Voiceover]
OF: Nick Yu, the playwright from Episode 13.
[Clip]
NY: That word is 作 [zuò]. That is Shanghainese, to talk about girls. and she would do so many things to make the boyfriend crazy, but still love her. Only Shanghai girls have this 作 [zuò]. You know, when I put this 作 [zuò] in the play, nobody knew how to translate it. Until now. I don't know.
[Voiceover]
OF: Emily Madge, the aquarium conservationist from Episode 14.
[Clip]
EM: This is really obvious. But my favourite one is 没有 [méiyǒu].
OF: 没有 [Méiyǒu].
EM: Because of the amount of times it's been said to me during the beluga project.
OF: Right.
EM: And the amount of hurdles we've had, because of that word. So I wouldn't say it was my favourite, but it's the most relevant.
OF: Absolutely. And just to any non-Chinese speakers, what does it mean?
EM: No.
[Voiceover]
OF: Simon Manetti, the business leader from Episode 17.
[Clip]
SM: 可遇而不可求 [Kěyù ér bùkě qiú]: ‘This is something that can be encountered, but not be sought after, or chased’. So this is something you're just gonna have to encounter in life, and not try to seek it. And when I first learned it, I was like “Ah OK, there’s an English equivalent to this”. But then I realised, when I tried to translate it, there isn’t. And it's such a beautiful concept.
[Voiceover]
OF: Abe Deyo, the tour manager from Episode 27.
[Clip]
AD: This is my favourite to tell artists. So 牛逼 [niúbī].
OF: Oh, hang on, hang on. I think I know where you're going with this. Is 牛 [niú] the cow?
AD: OK. So it means basically like ‘f**king great’, ‘f**king awesome’.
OF: Right.
AD: But the literal translation is ‘cow vagina’.
OF: Yeah.
AD: Crowds will shouted it at them during shows and stuff.
OF: Really?
AD: Oh, yeah. So when I try to explain that to the artists, they all love it. Because they think it’s funny.
[Outro]
OF: Thank you for listening, to this and to the other nine compilations. It has been great to listen back to some of the voices from the season. And I'm really excited to bring you the next season of Mosaic of China. Please follow us on social media to keep in touch with updates, we're on oscology* on Instagram, and mosaicofchina on Facebook and on WeChat. Until now, I've been asking you to use a different account on WeChat, but I finally got my hands on the right username now. And while you are busy adding me on those platforms, I will get busy filling the gaps in the season. And I look forward to seeing you again soon.
*A different Instagram ID was mentioned in the original recording. That ID is now obsolete, and the updated one has been substituted.
[Clips]
PG: Thank you very much.
MZ: Thank you.
EO: Thank you so much.
AP: Thank you too.
JL: Thank you very much.
GL: Thank you.
MZ: Thank you again.
VV: Thank you so much.
NS: Great, thank you.
LL: My pleasure too.
SD: Thank you very much.
YF: Thank you.
NY: Thank you.
EM: Thank you.
SY: Thank you so much.
NS: Thank you for having me.
SM: Awesome, thank you.
AW: Thank you.
SDM: Thank you.
LC: Thanks for having me.
YY: Thank you for having me.
RC: Thank you so much for having me.
GN: Thank you for having me.
GC: Thank you
TB: Thank you very much.
SC: Thank you.
AD: Great to see you too.
LT: Thank you so much.
SB: Thanks.
OC: Thank you.