Learning Chinese can be a humiliating, demoralizing affair. Even after hours, months, even years of study, Chinese children are running circles around you and cabdrivers still don’t understand you when you tell them where you live. Making it even worse, is having to spend hours studying something at its most basic level. If you’ve spent some time at university, going from semiotics and the logic of late capitalism to not being able to pronounce your own Chinese name is brutal. Chinese classes often do not equip you for the kinds of conversations you’d like to be having. Seriously, in a country with a one child policy, how useful is it really to ask new acquaintances how many people are in their family.

But, we persevere, and like alcoholics who give up the Black Label but start chugging mouth wash, we find ways to cope. This is the beginning of a series of pieces on how to learn Chinese from Kung fu movies. After all, if it’s worth saying while flying 70 ft through the air to stab someone with a spear, it’s worth saying all the time.

Source:

Today’s lesson comes from Tai Chi Master (aka Twin Warriors aka Twice Deadly), an extraordinary Jet Li movie from 1993. The following lines are from the final fight scene between Li and his best friend from the monastery, Junbao, who has been seduced by money and power and chosen to side with evil. After these lines are uttered some industrial strength whupass occurs.

Dialogue:

名利只系过眼云烟 | mínglì zh?xì guòy?nyúnyān | Fame and wealth are only temporary
今次我要替天行道 | jīncì w? yāo tìtiān xíngdào | this time I’m fighting for heaven.

Application:

As with so many of these kungfu quotables, the issue isn’t so much when can you use it, as it is, when can’t you use it.

Someone gives you an inflated price on something? Use it to assert your moral authority and good guanxi with the man upstairs. You’re offered a role in Rush Hour 5 but it’s just a supporting role? Bam. The possibilities are endless. If you’ve got some bright ideas for usages, write them in the comments below.

And always remember: 将来你们学过武功武, 需要帮助人阿 | jiānglái n?men xuéguò w?gōngw? xūyào bāngzhù rén ā | you must use your gongfu to help others!

Next time: How to parry this verbal thrust while asserting your own moral and biblical authority/superiority.

***

Related Articles
Dog meat, Kungfu, and National Cinema
No Sex or Kung-fu for Confucius
“The camerawork, as noted by others, is atrocious” – DVD buying in China
Wing Chun Whupass: Donnie Yen is 'Ip Man'

Warning：The use of any news and articles published on eChinacities.com without written permission from eChinacities.com constitutes copyright infringement, and legal action can be taken.