How to use "Six Skins" in a slogan to solicit business in the PRC
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From the Twitter account of the famous popular science writer and muckraker, Fang Zhouzi / Fang Shimin:
先把外资都赶跑、吓跑了，再死皮赖脸地请回来？ pic.twitter.com/FepFOsJnpY
— 方舟子 (@fangshimin) February 20, 2023
The overly long slogan on the banner stretched across the road reads:
Dàlì fāyáng yìngzhe tóupí hòuzhe liǎnpí mópò zuǐpí tàpò jiǎopí èzhe dùpí hébushàng yǎnpí de "liù pí" zhāoshāng jīngshén
大力发扬硬着头皮厚着脸皮磨破嘴皮踏破脚皮饿着肚皮合不上眼皮的"六皮"招商精神
"Vigorously promote the 'Six Skins' (harden your head skin [scalp], thicken your face skin, wear out your lip skin, tread away your foot skin [soles], hunger your belly skin, never close your eye skins [eyelids]) spirit of attracting investment"
The sentence that precedes the photograph reads:
Xiān bǎ wàizī dōu gǎn pǎo, xià pǎole, zài sǐpílàiliǎn dì qǐng huílái?
先把外资都赶跑、吓跑了，再死皮赖脸地请回来？
First drive off and scare away all foreign capital, and then shamefacedly invite them back?
From the moment China (sort of) opened its doors to the world economy, it has craved foreign investment, but has hated the fact that it had to rely on foreign capital to build up its business. It's what they call a máodùn 矛盾 ("contradiction").
Selected readings
- "Gobbledygook" (9/26/19)
- "#nobullshit bank" (4/1/18)
- "Face, B face, 13 face, and C face" (2/21/18)
[h.t. sun dang]
~flow said,
February 21, 2023 @ 7:25 am
大力提高宣传横幅文字数量！