麻雀雖小，五臟俱全 (slang)

I came across the program “Fun Taiwan” as I was channel surfing while having my lunch, where the host Janet and a Russian guest were doing the “tree hugging” in some mountain of Taitung. Such an act, according to the guest, is believed by the Russians to be able to refresh people.

On the world map, Taiwan is just a tiny spot that some people are not even aware of its existence. I’ve been told several times how Taiwanese sometimes have to explain to the locals that they are not from Thailand, but Taiwan when they are abroad.

Tiny as it is, there are some facts about Taiwan that are certainly not “petit.” It’s characterized by its biological diversity 生物多樣性(sheng wu4 duo yang4 xing4). According to Taiwan’s National Science Council,   Taiwan has 2.5 % of land species though it only takes 0.025 % of the earth’s land area, averagely 100 times higher than any other nations. And the marine biological species are as high as 400 times, which means we have 10% of the world’s marine species. A great number of those species, for example, 71% of the mammals, 31% of the amphibious animals and 25% of the plants are exclusive to Taiwan.

We have a slang for this: 麻雀雖小，五臟俱全(ma2 que4 sui xiao3, wu3 zang4 ju4 quan2), literally meaning “Although a sparrow is small, it has every gut it should have. 麻雀 means sparrow; 五臟means five guts, i.e. human guts. If you have a very small apartment, for example, but your tiny apartment has everything a house has, such as a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, . . . etc, we can use the slang to describe it—麻雀雖小，五臟俱全.

Imagine how amazing it is for a botanist to research in Taiwan. Located in tropical and sub-tropical area, Taiwan has botanical species ranging from torrid zone, temperate zone to frigid zone due to its altitude. He doesn’t have to fly among nations to see such a variety of plants. Not to mention those which are exclusive only to Taiwan.  

麻雀雖小，五臟俱全=麻雀虽小，五脏俱全 

生物多樣性=生物多样性