Packed like sardines (idiom)

Recently I went on a trip to Hong Kong. It was a short trip of only three days, as what we often call, 走馬看花 (zou3 ma3 kan4 hua), to look at flowers while riding on the horseback. What I got was only passing glances and superficial impressions.

Like any other big cities in the world, there’re big crowds of people on the downtown streets. Moving in the city is like moving in a stream of people. On the overpass, in the subway, on the way to the ferryboat, you’re always moving among people walking in two directions, most of which without much expressions and many of which with their earphones on. No wonder in Chinese we’ll use a lot of water-related idioms to describe what it is like with crowds of people or vehicles moving around, such as 川流不息(chuan liu2 bu4 xi2), and 水洩不通 (shui3 xie4 bu4 tong), where 川is  river whereas水, water.

Another expression for such jostling each other in a crowd would be 摩肩接踵(mo2 jian jie zhong3), literally meaning touching (摩, 接) each other’s shoulders肩and heels踵.

One morning when moving among the stream, however, a poem I read in college, some twenty years ago, flashed into my mind. It’s Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro” in 1911:

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

The textbook I read said this poem was a mimic of Japanese haiku, which is actually very Chinese. With those faces approaching, I imagined countless petals blossoming in front of mine.

I used to think Taiwan was a crowded place but when I saw those clusters of uprising buildings in Hong Kong, I realized how “big” Taichung, the city I’m living in, is comparatively. Closely they are standing very neatly to each other like fish scales or teeth of a comb. That’s what 鱗次櫛比(lin2 ci4 jie2 bi3) means. Spiderman will be thrilled swinging among them, I think. Perfect playground for him.

While watching the old buildings on the hill, I couldn’t help recalling those characters living in the stories told by Eileen Chang. Yes, this is a city where people are packed like sardines. Perhaps that’s why 范柳原(fan4 lie3 yuan2) and 白流蘇(bai2 lie2 su) could manage to meet each other in “Love in a Falling City.” And as a tram passed by the bus I was on, I seemed to be hearing the jingling sounds that make the background of so many of her stories. I began to realize that I love Hong Kong for the sake of Eileen Chang, not for anything else.

走馬看花=走马看花

水洩不通=水泄不通

鱗次櫛比=鳞次栉比

白流蘇=白流苏

低頭族 (up-to-date-term)

More than one thousand years ago, when the Chinese poet 李白, Li-bai put down one of his most well-known lines, “ 舉頭望明月，低頭思故鄉(ju3 tou2 wang4 ming2 yue4, di tou2 si gu4 xiang,”  “I look up at the bright moon, and then lower my head thinking about home,” he wouldn’t have foreseen that years later there would be a group of people labeled as “低頭族,” people who lower their heads.

    (from idn-news.com)

Ever since smart phones hit the market, we’ve seen more and more scenes as above: on the bus; in the train; in a restaurant or a coffee shop, where people meet and are supposed to talk or socialize with each other. . . . As a result, a new term was coined for those smartphone addicts--低頭族

Besides its literal meaning, 低頭also means surrender, giving in. Sometimes when people have to compromise, yielding to a stronger power, we’ll probably sigh and say “人在屋簷下，不得不低頭 (ren2 zai4 wu yan2 xia4, bu4 de2 bu4 di tou2), ” you have no other choice but to lower your head under eaves.

A more literary expression for 低頭 is 俯首(fu3 shou3). When confronted with hard evidence, a crime suspect insisting on his innocence may lower his head and confess. The act is called俯首認罪(fu3 shou3 ren4 zui4). Or you might lay down your arms and surrender to someone. In that case, 俯首稱臣(fu3 shou3 cheng chen2) will be proper for the situation.

On the contrary, when people are triumphant and making great strides with their heads up, you can say they’re 昂首闊步(ang2 shou3 kuo4 bu4). But people these days may lower their heads before they stride. Think about those Spanish football fans, what did they do first when their team won the 2012 European Football championship? Probably texted the news to friends or spread it on Facebook!

低頭族=低头族

舉頭望明月，低頭思故鄉=举头望明月，低头思故乡

人在屋簷下，不得不低頭=人在屋檐下，不得不低头

俯首認罪=俯首认罪

俯首稱臣=俯首称臣

昂首闊步=昂首阔步

Getting stood up (Slang)

“I got to tell you this!” My friend Agnes exclaimed to me, panting.

“But I’m starving!” She took a bite of the hamburger in her hand.

“We got stood up by the aboriginal driver who said he’d like to adopt two of the puppies. He kept us waiting for 40 minutes and his cell phone was off!”

“It sucks!” answered me with anger.

“Perhaps it’s better not to give those puppies to people of this kind. If he stood you up and turned his cell off, he’s irresponsible and will be likely to abandon the dogs when he doesn’t want them.” I concluded.

Previously I wrote about how my friend Spencer had lost his dog “Star” and got her back in the writing “完璧歸趙.” She’s delivered a litter of 7 puppies. Now the puppies are ready to leave their mother and we’re trying to give them away.

We often use to term “放鴿子(fang4 ge zi),” releasing a dove, to refer to the act of standing someone up, when someone makes an appointment with someone else but doesn’t show up, not because of irresistible causes. Sometimes a cabbie or a tour bus driver might make the passengers get off before reaching the destinations. Such act is also called放鴿子.

I really have no idea why we say that. One possible relation is the under-the-table gambling of dove race in Taiwan. To train the racing doves, the keepers would take them far away from home, set them free, and then go home without the doves. The doves have to find their way home. Probably this is why.

Another expression related to “放,” set free, is 放牛吃草(fang4 niu2 chi cao3), literally meaning to release the cattle to graze, leaving them alone.  Some parents ride with a loose rein when bringing up their children. You may use the expression to describe their attitude.

Back to the old times, before the cattle were replaced by machines in farming, the farmers would bring the cattle to a grass, releasing and letting them graze freely on the grass. There’s no need to bind or control the cattle. Such a “let-it-be” attitude thus is called放牛吃草.

It turned out that my friends were not 放鴿子. The driver was stuck by a mud slide in the mountain, where the two puppies are now running around happily growing up, I believe.

完璧歸趙=完璧归赵

放鴿子=放鸽子