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To: oldtimer2
Article: Al Gore reminds us that The Chinese expression for crisis consists of two characters:

The first is a symbol for danger

the second is a symbol for opportunity.


I'm afraid that's a made-up Chinese saying, just like that other phrase "may you live in interesting times". So where do these made-up sayings come from? There was a genre of late 19th and early 20th century Western writers who pioneered a genre of fiction involving Chinese characters saying things that sounded profound/obscure to Western ears. People who read these books may have lifted a few exotic-sounding aphorisms, thinking that they were in fact Chinese, rather that the product of an American writer's imagination.
33 posted on 04/24/2006 9:55:19 AM PDT by Zhang Fei
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To: Zhang Fei
CORRECT !

There is a good essay on same by Victor H. Mair here.

jas3
53 posted on 04/24/2006 12:35:08 PM PDT by jas3
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