IN English, there are a number of fairly widespread sayings that describe pointless actions, similar to “carrying coals to Newcastle,” “gilding the lily,” “over-egging the pudding” and “putting butter on bacon.”
In Chinese, just a few colourful expressions carry related meanings. Here are two examples.
One is xiazidiandeng baifeila, or “lighting a candle for a blind man,” to explain sheer waste.
This expression represents a particular type of historic Chinese language, which is named xiehouyu, or actually “words after a pause.”
Xiehouyu is a brief, humorous and figurative sentence consisting of two components: the previous half presents a state of affairs and the latter half gives the rationale. The second half is often uttered after a pause, or generally omitted altogether, inviting listeners to guess the supposed which means of the allegory introduced within the first half.
This truncated witticism is just like English audio system uttering simply the primary a part of a saying, similar to “speak of the devil” or “an apple a day.”
Another Chinese xiehouyu, which reads tuokuzifangpi duociyiju, actually means “taking off one’s pants to fart,” connoting the pointlessness of such an motion.
Some individuals contemplate this expression too vulgar to be cited in a well mannered firm, in order that they resort to the Chinese idiom huashe tianzu, or “to draw a snake and add feet to it.”
Vulgar or cultured, each sayings level to the identical futility of fully superfluous actions.
