Here’s another Chinese idiom. The idiomatic English translation of 鹬蚌相争 (yù bàng xiāng zhēng) is “a snipe and a clam locked in combat”. Without hearing the story behind it, this seems to be ridiculously cryptic. But once you know the story, it makes perfect sense. The story goes…

One day, a clam [...]

Here’s another Chinese idiom with an interesting story. The idiomatic English translation of 自相矛盾 (zì xiāng máo dùn) is “contradicting oneself”. The story behind it goes like this:

In ancient times, there was a sword and shield salesman who would yell out to people passing by, “My spears are the sharpest in the world [...]

In light of the fact that I don’t feel like making fun of the news lately and that most of the China-related news involves more and more product recalls, I thought I’d post something different, the story and meaning behind a Chinese idiom. I’ll probably make it a pretty regular thing.

For the most part, [...]