泡湯 (slang)

According to recent news reports, over 200 people have died in flooding in Thailand since mid-July. 58 of its 77 provinces were badly hit. Huge tracts of farmland are submerged, threatening this year's rice crop. This is certainly one of the worst floods ever. Watching people moving around the street on rafts, a Chinese term flashed into my mind--泡湯(pao4 tang).

Literally the term means “soaking in soup.” It is used to describe a ruined plan or smashed hope. For example, when your picnic plan is ruined by a typhoon, you can say “This typhoon has made my picnic plan泡湯.” 「這個颱風害我的野餐計畫泡湯了」(zhe4 ge tai2 feng hai4 wo3 de yie3 can pao4 tang le)。 Or when the biggest-ever first prize of the lottery is announced, you’re not the winner. You probably will say “My hope has been smashed.” 「我的希望泡湯了」(wo3 de xi wong4 pao4 tang le)。

These days in Taiwan泡湯is also used to refer to going to a hot spring. In some Chinese dialects, 湯 means “hot spring.” Such a usage spread to Japan and is used in Japanese meaning the same. But in Japanese as I know there’s no such a term as 泡湯. A reasonable guess is that some people combine the word湯 with 泡, which means to soak or bathe as a term meaning going to a hot spring and having a bath there.

When describing a firm and flawless defense, we sometimes say固若金湯(gu4 ruo4 jin tang), which means as firm as金湯. 金means gold, referring to city gate made of metal, while 湯means boiling water, referring to a moat with boiling water. This term is not limited to depicting national defense. It is also used in sports games.

The second story of 二十四孝(er4 shi2 si4 xiao4), The Twenty-four Filial Examples is親嚐湯藥(qin chang2 tang yao4), Her Son Tasted Soups and Medicine, which is about how Emperor Wen of Han had taken care of his illed mother by making her herbal medicine and tasted it in person before serving it to his mother to see if it was too hot or bitter. At ancient times before the emergence of chemical medicine, people put various herbals together, simmered it and took the soup-like medicine to cure diseases. That’s why medicine was called 湯藥.

Sometimes people expect an innovation of a certain policy or system, only to find out a change in form but not in content, they’ll say it’s only換湯不換藥(huan4 tang bu2 huan4 yao4), which literally means a change of the soup but not of the medicine. With the approach of the presidential election, you’ll find a lot of “political language” which is only a play of words instead of any substantial changes.

I hope God will see Thailand through the flood.  

泡湯=泡汤

這個颱風害我的野餐計畫泡湯了=这个台风害我的野餐计划泡汤了

固若金湯=固若金汤

親嚐湯藥=亲尝汤药

換湯不換藥=换汤不换药