Bi yi shi, ci yi shi (彼一时，此一时) That was one time, this is another. The words come from the Mencius. The Handian dictionary explains them: the time is different, and the situation has changed. In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a character uses the phrase to explain why an earlier policy no longer applies.
Redesigning the Bird’s Nest
Work on Beijing’s National Stadium, the Bird’s Nest, began in March 2004. In July 2004 the site stopped work while the construction plan was revised for reasons of cost and safety. The retractable roof of the original design was dropped, and the opening in the roof was made larger.
The redesign cut the steel in the structure by 22.3 percent and the membrane by 23 percent. The revised plan was meant to keep the cost within the 2.267 billion yuan set by the National Development and Reform Commission. Work resumed on December 28, 2004, and the stadium was finished on June 28, 2008.
Weighing the Elephant
Sun Quan once sent Cao Cao a large elephant. Cao Cao wanted to know its weight, but none of his officials could work out how. His young son Cao Chong said: “Put the elephant on a big boat and mark where the water reaches. Then load the boat with things that can be weighed, and the answer will be known.” Cao Cao was delighted and did it. (Records of the Three Kingdoms)
The story may not be true. The scholar He Zhuo argued that Sun Quan could only have obtained elephants after 210, and Cao Chong died before then, in 208 at the latest. The historian Chen Yinke argued that the story came from an Indian Buddhist text.
Trusting the Measurement
In a story from the Han Feizi, a man of Zheng goes to buy shoes. He would rather trust the measurement of his foot that he took beforehand than try the shoes on his own feet. Zheng ren mai lü, the man of Zheng buys shoes, is used to mock people who follow the rule and ignore reality.
An tu suo ji, looking for a fine horse by its picture, has a related meaning. The Handian dictionary explains it as sticking to set methods when doing things.
Overtaking on the Curve
“A very fashionable phrase right now is ‘overtaking on the curve,'” a 2016 article on the newspaper site of People’s Daily observed. The phrase holds that China has the advantage of the latecomer. It can borrow others’ advanced technology and catch up with the West without spending heavily on research. “Many lectures now teach entrepreneurs how to ‘overtake on the curve,’ and some local governments shout similar slogans.”
The article argued against the idea. In technological innovation, it said, there is no possibility of overtaking on the curve.
Handled on Receipt
Since 2019, Beijing has handled residents’ complaints under a system called jie su ji ban, handle a complaint as soon as it is received. Its main channel is the 12345 citizen service hotline, which answers 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
On September 24, 2021, the city adopted Regulations on Handling Complaints Upon Receipt, which then took effect. Each work order now states the deadline by which the complaint must be handled.
The Shop Boy
In March 2018, during the annual session of the national legislature, Xinhua reported the words of a member of the national political advisory body. “The ‘shop boy’ spirit is a new requirement put forward by Shanghai,” he said. It asks for a stronger sense of service, “to be good ‘shop boys’ serving enterprises, to respond to every request and not to disturb them otherwise.”
The dianxiao’er, the shop boy, is the old word for an attendant in an inn or a tavern.
Service at Haidilao
Haidilao, founded by Zhang Yong in 1994 in Jianyang, Sichuan, is the largest hot pot chain in China. It is known for attentive service. In 2011 a book about the company by Huang Tiejian, Haidilao: You Can’t Learn It, swept the country.
The service also draws criticism. A 2022 article on the business site TMTPost wrote that its birthday greetings had become a scene of mass embarrassment, and that doubts about “pathological service and excessive service” kept coming.
A Colorful Black
A post on the marketing site Digitaling retells a designers’ joke about a client who asks for “a colorful black” (wucai banlan de hei), and then for “a slightly brighter black.” The client in the joke is jiafang baba, Party A daddy. The post says that Party A daddy “seems to have a mysterious obsession with the variety of black.”
The Best Business Environment
On the afternoon of February 25, 2019, Xi Jinping chaired the second meeting of the Central Commission for Comprehensively Governing the Country by Law. The meeting stressed: “The rule of law is the best business environment” (法治是最好的营商环境).