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.
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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