Clothes make the man (Clothing)

Without exception the press spotlighted what those Hollywood stars were wearing at the Academy Award this year. It seems true that “clothes make the man.” (Especially for women!) We have a similar expression, 佛要金裝，人要衣裝(fo2 yao4 jin zhuang, ren2 yao4 yi zhuang), Gold makes the Buddhist statue just as clothes make the man.

We call a leader 領袖(ling3 xiu4), the collar and the sleeves as they are considered the most important part of an outfit. When someone is good at socializing with great diplomacy and thus easier to achieve success, we’ll say he’s 長袖善舞(chang2 xiu4 shan4 wu3), literally meaning someone with long sleeves and good at waving them or making them dance. On the contrary, if an official lives a plain, or even poor life because he’s law-abiding and never takes bribes, we use 兩袖清風(liang2 xiu4 qing feng), bearing nothing but wind in one’s sleeves to describe him. I think it’s because people used to put their stuff in their sleeves, which were wider and longer in shape.

Hats do not play such an important role as they used to be. In English, when you high-hat someone, you show despise towards him. But in Chinese, when we “put a high hat on someone,” 戴高帽(dai3 kao mao4)  we give exaggerated compliments to flatter him.

If someone gets a position only through nepotism, we call this 裙帶關係(chun2 dau4 guan xi), a connection on skirt’s string. And speaking of the skirt, when you’re overwhelmed with a woman’s charm and admire her a lot, we can say you 拜倒在她的石榴裙下(bai4 dao3 zai4 ta d shi2 liu2 qun2 xia4), kneel down under her red skirt.

Like English-speakers, we like to denounce people by claiming they are not humans but animals. You say “son of a bitch,” while we say 畜生(chu4 sheng), born by a beast, or sometimes 衣冠禽獸(yi guan qin2 shou4). 衣is clothes, 冠, hat, 禽獸, the beast. Put together it means a beast with clothes and hat on.

In the third century, a group of scholars, writers and musicians came together called Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove 竹林七賢(zhu2 lin2 qi xian2). They led a self-indulgent life, drinking, talking and engaging in their art. One of them liked to walk around in his nude. One day when accused by one of his visitors of being impolite, he replied, “I take the universe as my house and the house as my clothes. Who told you to intrude into my pants?”

For those who take the world as their clothes and love to wear their birthday suit, they may go to the nude beach, 天體海灘(tian ti3 hai3 tan), where nobody will get shocked or annoyed, and you don’t have to defend yourself by calling them intruders.

領袖=领袖

長袖善舞=长袖善舞

兩袖清風=两袖清风

裙帶關係=裙带关系

衣冠禽獸=衣冠禽兽

竹林七賢=竹林七贤

天體海灘=天体海滩