用典 Allusions

Allusions, 典 or 典故, are frequently used in spoken and written Chinese, both in formal and informal contexts. These allusions can draw on any aspect of the tradition, be it historical, classical, literary, poetic, or even more modern as allusions can refer to any point in recent history and, given the language-centric nature of Maoist and post-Maoist rule, aspects of what we call New China Newspeak or ‘Maospeak’.… Read

成語 Set Expressions

The ‘four-character set expression’ 四字成語 is sometimes translated as ‘cliché’, since they frequently offer a ready made linguistic formulation requiring little thought. Trite expressions abound in Chinese and have been accumulated over many generations.… Read