債多不愁 (chop suey)

It has been reported that the White House sternly warned the lawmakers that they must raise the limit on the US government borrowing or risk a catastrophic default on debt payments.

Hearing the news, I at once remembered the Chinese saying債多不愁(zhai4 duo bu4 chou2), literally meaning when you’re deeply in debt, you will no longer worry about it.

When you first get bitten by a flea, you might feel very itchy. It gets worsen when you get the second or the third. You feel so itchy that it seems to be killing you. But magically when it goes on to the thirty-seventh or say, sixty-eighth, you turn numb. You get so used to the itch that you don’t feel it at all. It’s the same with debts.

So why worry? You’re down and out. It just couldn’t get worse. It’s the debtee 債主(zhai4 zhu3) (or 債權人(zhai quan2 ren2) as used legally) that should be worrying. He loses his appetite during the day. He tosses and turns at night. He’s being burned by the fire of worry that he would never get his money back.

When a person is deeply in debt, we have an idiom for it: 債臺高築(zhai4 tai2 gao zhu3). In Chinese history there once was a king who borrowed a lot of money to fight a battle. But he lost it and couldn’t return the money. To avoid his debtees, he built a high tower to hide. If you don’t want to sound so literary, you can say he 欠了一屁股債(qian4 li yi2 pi4 gu3 zhai4). 欠債(qian4 zhai4) means to get into debt. 屁股(pi4 gu3) is ass. You have your ass all covered in debts.

Customarily the debtees will get his money back at the end of the year, i.e. before the Chinese New Year’s Eve. As a result, those who are in debt are especially busy at the end of the year. They have to either find money to pay off their debts, or get new loans to cover the old ones. Accordingly an interesting custom arose.

In the past some temples would put on Taiwanese operas on the Lunar New Year’s Eve, which was called 避債戲(bi4 zhai4 xi4), a show to avoid the debtees. People who couldn’t pay off their debts would go watch the show. If a debtee went to the show trying to locate his debtor and asked the money back, he would irritate the audience or even get a good beating. The show went on for whole night till the morning of the New Year’s Day. Then everyone was safe and went home happily.

For debtors in the modern society, they can have a bankruptcy announced, 宣告破產(xian gao4 puo4 chan3). Some would get new loans to pay off the old ones, which is called 以債養債(yi3 zhai4 yang3 zhai4). Others even unwisely resort to a shark loan 高利貸(gao li4 dai4), or 地下錢莊(di4 xia4 qian2 zhong)

There are some debts that can’t be paid off by money, which is called人情債(ren2 qing2 zhai4), debt of gratitude. For money, you no longer feel you owe anything to anyone once you return it, sometimes plus interest 利息(li4 xi2). But for a 人情債, it’s never like that.

Like the US government, Taiwan’s government is facing the same problem. It’s borrowing more and more money. We’re worried that we’re going so deeply in debt that we’ll pass along too much debt to our offspring , i.e.債留子孫(zhai4 lie2 zi3 sun). For generations our ancestors were thinking about leaving us property, but now we’re leaving behind us liability. It’s getting worse because the birth rate in Taiwan is declining rapidly. I’m no financial expert. But, 債多不愁 ? I don’t see how.

           

債權人=债权人

債臺高築=债台高筑

避債戲=避债戏

宣告破產=宣告破产

以債養債=以债养债

高利貸=高利贷

地下錢莊=地下钱庄

人情債=人情债

債留子孫=债留子孙