If you ever want to express to another person in Chinese that something is unimportant or doesn’t really matter. Why don’t you tell them that it is just ‘chicken feathers and garlic skin’ Or 鸡毛蒜皮 jīmáosuànpí in Chinese.
If you want to express that you will lose everything whatever you do then why not say that the ‘eggs are broken and the chickens have flown away’ 鸡飞蛋打 jifēidàndǎ
Watch this video below to get an idea of where the expressions come from.
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This Chinese idiom somewhat sums up my recent work on the blog. I’ve written a lot of new texts and I’ve selected a lot of photos to go with them. However, I haven’t been able to put them together. Hopefully in the next few weeks they all will be finished.
In the meantime enjoy this very apt idiom (成语 Chengyŭ): Bàn tú ér fèi半途而废
Coming up (when finished):
Yushu town (Qinghai Province)
The Yangtse River 1991 & 2009 compared. A day to day account of how it was sailing from Shanghai to Chongqing in 1991. And our more recent adventure last year from Chongqing to Yichang.
Chongqing : The City
Book review: Beijing Coma by Ma Jian
Zhaozhou Bridge, Hebei Province, old text re-done.
Welcome to our new Curiosities of Chinese section. This is where we look at Chinese idioms, sayings and expressions and try to explain their meaning and composition. This is not an attempt to teach Chinese but just a fun look at some of the fascinating parts of this rich language.
The first in the series is one of my favourite idioms.
对牛弹琴
Have you ever wondered that sometimes you are talking to, or explaining things to, people who just aren’t on the same intellectual level as you? Or ever wondered why the person you are talking to is so stubborn that whatever you say to them will never change their minds, no matter how right you might be?
The Chinese have a perfect idiom to describe such a situation. 对牛弹琴 duì niú tán qín.
This literally means “playing the lute to a cow”. I really can’t sum up that frustration any better than this expression.
Picture taken from 100 Common Chinese Idioms and Set Phrases by Sinolingua
对Duì
means to or towards.
牛Niú
is a cow.
弹Tán
means to play a stringed instrument
琴Qín
is a general name for a stringed instrument but often refers to a traditional Chinese harp like instrument or lute.
