Chengyu for China’s Many iPhones

A Chinese analyst tweeted that Apple CEO Tim Cook was apparently very happy on his recent trip to China. Why?

"Because he saw a lot of people on the streets using iPhones."

"There are iPhone3, iPhone4, iPhone4S, as well as iPhone5 and iPhone6. There are [iPhones] with three-inch screens, four-inch screens, five-inch screens, single-screens and double-screens. There are iPhones of flip style, one-piece style and slider style. And there are [iPhones] with keypads, removable batteries and double SIM cards…"

There's a chengyu for this iPhone cornucopia: 五花八门 (wǔ huā bā mén).

五花八门 (wǔ huā bā mén) basically refers to something that has many different patterns, or which changes a lot. It comes from two ancient military formations (五花 – wǔ huā; 八门 – bā mén) which involved many transformations.

Here are examples of how 五花八门 is used in the wild.

Usage 1) Noun + (是) + 五花八门

Example 1 A)

"欧洲民间和媒体的看法更是五花八门"

"ōuzhōu mínjiān hé méitǐ de kànfǎ ɡènɡ shì wǔhuābāmén"

"The opinions of European people and media are very diverse"

Example 1 B)

"现在兜售假发票的手段五花八门 "

"xiànzài dōushòu jiǎ fāpiào de shǒuduàn wǔhuābāmén "

"Right now there are all sorts of ways to peddle fake tickets"

Usage 2) 五花八门 + 的 + Noun.

Example 2 A)

"种种五花八门的招数,号称是为了激励学生"

"zhǒngzhǒng wǔhuābāmén de zhāoshù, hàochēng shì wèile jīlì xuéshēng"

"These many kinds of tricks, are said to be for motivating students"

Example 2 B)

"随着网络的发展，五花八门的节日蜂拥而至 "

"suízhe wǎngluò de fāzhǎn, wǔhuābāmén de jiérì fēngyōnɡérzhì "

"Along with the development of the internet, all kinds of new holidays have been appearing"

Example 2 C)

"每到年底，各行各业都要进行五花八门的评选和颁奖 "

"měi dào niándǐ, gèhánggèyè dōuyào jìnxíng wǔhuābāmén de píngxuǎn hé bānjiǎng"

"At the end of every year, all industries and professions have all sorts of elections and awards"

What's your favorite shanzhai iPhone?

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Three Simple Uses of the Other “Ma” on a Bag

by John Pasden

I recently wrote about my personal experience with the particle 嘛 (not 吗), and how a dictionary entry helped me get a feel for how the particle is used. That dictionary entry, again, is from the Oxford Concise English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary (blog post here):

嘛: ma (助) 1 [used at the end of a sentence to show what precedes it is obvious]: 这样做是不对～！ Of course it was acting improperly! 孩子总是孩子～！ Children are children! 2 [used within a sentence to mark a pause]: 你～，就不用亲自去了。 As for you, I don’t think you have to go in person.

Not too long ago, I encountered this little coin purse/bag, which offers three very concise uses of our particle 嘛:

The text is as follows (broken into three lines to make it easier to discuss):

1: 钱嘛

2: 纸嘛

3: 花嘛

OK, now clearly, this is the same 嘛 particle. But what does this actually mean??

First, “钱嘛” means something like, “it’s money,” as in, “we all know what money is, and what it’s for.” This could also have been expressed more verbosely by: “是钱嘛” or even as: “不就是钱嘛” (“isn’t it just money”??).

Second, “纸嘛” quite simply means, “it’s (made out of) paper (as we all know).” Duh. “It’s just paper.” This usage is basically the same as the first.