Chinese word for "crisis"
| Crisis | |||||||||
| 200px | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 危機 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 危机 | ||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | wēijī | ||||||||
|
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The Chinese word for "crisis" (simplified Chinese: 危机; traditional Chinese: 危機; pinyin: wēijī) is frequently invoked in Western motivational speaking as being composed of two Chinese characters respectively signifying "danger" and "opportunity". Some linguists have criticized this interpretation as a kind of etymological fallacy because the primary meaning of the character pronounced jī (simplified Chinese: 机; traditional Chinese: 機) is not "opportunity".[1][2]
Usage
American linguist Benjamin Zimmer has traced mentions in English of the Chinese term for "crisis" as far as an anonymous editorial in a 1938 journal for missionaries in China.[3][1] But its use probably gained momentum in the United States after John F. Kennedy employed this trope in speeches in 1959 and 1960:[1]
In the Chinese language, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters,
one representing danger and the other, opportunity.[4]
Its meaning was further reinforced when Richard M. Nixon and others employed its use in their own public oratory.[citation needed]
Referencing the word has since become a staple meme for American business consultants and motivational speakers, as well as gaining popularity in educational institutions, politics and in the popular press. For example, in 2007, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice applied it during Middle East peace talks.[5] Former Vice President Al Gore did so both in testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, in the introduction of An Inconvenient Truth, and in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance lecture.[6][7]
Benjamin Zimmer attributes the appeal of this anecdote to its "handiness" as a rhetorical device and optimistic "call to action",[8] as well as to "wishful thinking".[9]
Public mistranslation
Chinese philologist Victor H. Mair of the University of Pennsylvania states the popular interpretation of wēijī as "danger" plus "opportunity" is a "widespread public misperception" in the English-speaking world.[9] While wēi (危) does mean "dangerous" or "precarious", the element jī (机) is highly polysemous. The basic theme common to its meaning is something like "critical point".[9] "Opportunity" in Chinese is instead a compound noun that contains jī, jīhuì (机会, literally "meeting a critical point").
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ "The Straight Dope: Is the Chinese word for "crisis" a combination of "danger" and "opportunity"?"
- ↑ Chinese Recorder (January 1938, "The Challenge of Unusual Times")
- ↑ Speeches by President Kennedy at United Negro College Fund fundraiser, Indianapolis, Indiana, 12 April 1959, and Valley Forge Country Club, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, 29 October 1960
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ https://science.house.gov/sites/republicans.science.house.gov/files/documents/hearings/032107_gore.pdf
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
