Increasing our proverb deficit
Renowned China scholar and shoe-seller Ivanka Trump tweeted an Ancient Chinese Proverb yesterday, except that it was greeted by many people pointing out that it’s not a Chinese proverb. Oh yeah? Well what is it then?! A commonplace thought.
“Those who say it can not be done, should not interrupt those doing it.” -Chinese Proverb
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) June 11, 2018
Those who say it can not be done, should not interrupt those doing it.
Oh, awesome. Also, those who don’t like what’s for dinner, can go out and get their own. Similarly, those who forget to walk the dog, can damn well clean up the poop right this second before doing anything else. Likewise, those who like to pull in lots of $$$ from expensive dreck, do well to have a rich corrupt daddy to make it all happen. Chinese proverbs, every one of them.
A lack of a clear source for Trump’s tweet has some people speculating the first daughter either made it up or, a more likely explanation, cut and pasted the saying from an unreliable website. In the meantime, the search for this “proverb” through ancient Chinese texts has become something of a viral Quixotic quest in China, filled with many a sarcastic comment:
“Did you get that from a fortune cookie?”
“估计是 fortune cookie 上学来的…”
But
"You can call any old shit a Chinese proverb on the internet."
–Confucius https://t.co/lCcBwtKm5g— Brendan O'Kane (@bokane) June 11, 2018
Three minutes of googling suggests this is a fake Chinese Proverb. It seems in fact to be American from the turn of the 20th c.—which makes sense, since its spirit is can-do Americanism. But why are Trump WH aides giving our proverbs to China, increasing our proverb deficit? https://t.co/bqjbZhXlQr
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) June 11, 2018
Ancient Chinese secret, huh?
We have a proverb deficit? There is a number of proverbs we need to have? If so, what is that number? I can fix it for them; I can make up proverbs. I’d hate to think we fall behind in proverbs.
But then you’d be risking proverb inflation, iknklast. You can’t just go throwing out fiat proverbs and expecting that to solve all of your problems. “A pro in the hand is a verb in the bush,” – Ancient Chinese Proverb.
What a Maroon #1
Soap. Laundry soap. You must be old, too.
chigau,
Not old, just lacking in upkeep.
OK, old.
‘Doing it? Doing _what_? Granting recognition to murderous tyrants and trading away a potential bargaining chip like military exercises in exchange for vague promises made and broken before? And then trying to sell it as an achievement to the gullible? Who do you think you’re fooling, o thief of other people’s shoe designs? This is why you should never elect grifty carnival sideshow hucksters to any office. If you made them dog catcher, they’d catch no canines, but argue continually the dogs have given earnest assurances they’d be turning themselves in… eventually. Oh, to hell with this, I’m going drinking.’
–Lao Tzu
@What a Maroon It’s amazing how that crap stays lodged in our brains for decades. Conversely, though, now that I don’t have to watch commercial TV or listen to commercial radio any more I don’t know if I know a single jingle or catchphrase invented less than a decade ago. (Though I do often get podcast intro music stuck in my head.)
Boilerplate ‘pos think’ bullshit. Horatio Alger, to Norman Vincent Peale, to Werner Erhard, with side trips to Louise Hay and Oprah.
This administration is the end product of the cult and culture of wishful thinking.
guest,
The mute button works for me.
But the Calgon ad was subtly layered. On the one hand, it was playing on racist tropes with the Chinese laundry; on the other hand, it was slyly skewering those tropes and the western tendency to exoticize eastern Asians; on the other other hand, it was totally cheesy.
Or am I over-analyzing my nostalgia?
Yes.
I used to get very annoyed when people posted fake Chinese proverbs or fake quotations from Confucius or Lao Zi. Even the famous curse “May you live in interesting times!” is probably not of Chinese origin, although it has been “adopted” by some Chinese.
There seems to be a number of web sites that specialise in providing fake Chinese culture and they all reference one anther, never any primary sources. I used to ask for references but I’ve given up now. It’s a pity really because the real thing is so much more interesting.
The source is probably Charley Chan movies.
Ah yes!! “Confucius he say…”
I don’t think I have come across anyone who speaks English using the Chinese word order the way Charley did.