Pandemic pun
Of the hundreds of pandemic memes that come to me, this is one that I didn't fully understand when I first received it:
Read the rest of this entry »
Archive for Memes
Shifting valences of "throwing the pot" in Chinese
There's an odd expression that has become virally popular in the PRC in recent weeks, viz., shuǎi guō 甩锅 (lit., "throw / toss the pot / pan", i.e., "shift the blame; pass the buck").
Expressions related to guō 锅 ("pot / pan") are not new. For example, bèi guō 背锅 ("bear the blame"), and guō cóng tiān jiàng 锅从天降 ("accusation / blame coming from nowhere", lit., "pot falling from the sky"). Together with shuǎi guō 甩锅 (lit., "throw / toss the pot / pan") itself, they were popular long before their current application in connection with accusations of responsibility and culpability for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read the rest of this entry »
"Crisis = danger + opportunity" in America and in PRC official media
From Gillian Hochmuth:
Thank you for your great explanation of the reasons behind the famous Kennedy "crisis" misquote. When I was in high school, I had a friend who was Chinese and spoke Mandarin fluently, who explained it to my US History class after the teacher quoted Kennedy. That was over 20 years ago and I remembered that his quote was wrong, but could not remember the explanation I was given well enough to explain it to someone else.
Read the rest of this entry »