Posts by Sam Duncan

I'm loving 汉子英雄 (hànziyīngxióng – "Chinese characters hero") as usual. It's a programme on Chinese TV where contestants are tested on their memory of hand-written characters (hanzi), under the clock. There's also an app which lets you test yourself in a couple of different ways – which is a lot harder than I thought when you are put on the spot with a time limit.

Here are a couple of expressions that have stuck in my head for ages:

山中无老虎 猴子称大王 (shānzhōngwúlǎohǔ hóuzichēngdàwáng)

If the tigers leave the mountain, the monkey is named King. This phrase is from a fable too long to summarise here, and is an equivalent to "When the cat’s away the mouse will play." You can use it in the same situations, such as when your boss is away for a week.

英雄无用武之地 (yīngxióngwúyòngwǔzhīdì)

A hero with no place to display his prowess.

Ed: Sam Duncan is now based up in Daqing, China's far northeast, as of the end of last year. Here's a new one of his blog posts about some of the local turns of phrase (东北话) he's picking up there

People here in the Northeast have their own word for Russians, 毛子 (máozi). 毛 means hair so I guess the term translates as "hairy ones.” The nicer version is 老毛子 (lǎomáozi – old/venerable hairy ones), and the more derogatory usage is 傻毛子 (shǎmáozi – stupid hairy ones).

Why should you never share a pear with your significant other? Because to share/split/ divide a pear in Chinese is 分梨 (fēnlí​), which sounds exactly the same as 分离 (fēnlí), to separate.

So next time you have a pear, don’t offer to split it with anyone, it will be the certain death of your relationship.