On February 15, 1945, Mao Zedong spoke about shantou zhuyi (山头主义), “mountaintop-ism,” in which each group in the Party holds to its own hill. He did not deny that such groups existed. “Acknowledging that mountaintop-ism exists,” he said, “has the purpose of eliminating the mountaintops, so that they melt together and the whole Party becomes one body.”
The Result of United Struggle
The Government Work Report delivered on March 5, 2026, explains the achievements of the past period in one sentence. “Fundamentally, they are due to the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core steering the course, and to the scientific guidance of Xi Jinping Thought.”
The same sentence ends: “They are the result of the united struggle of the whole Party, the whole army and the people of all ethnic groups of the whole country.” The 2025 report used a closely similar sentence.
The Order of Toasts
An etiquette column in the Handan Daily, reprinted by Sina Finance in February 2023, explains how to toast at a dinner. “In general, toasts follow the order of age, of rank in the job, and of host and guest.” (一般情况下敬酒应以年龄大小、职位高低、宾主身份为序) The toasts begin “with the guests of honor and the elders” and come only then to the ordinary guests.
Brothers Quarrel Within the Wall
The ode Changdi in the Book of Songs praises brothers. “Of all the people of today, none are like brothers.” It also says: “Brothers quarrel within the wall, but they fend off insult from outside.” (兄弟阋于墙，外御其侮) The idiom xiongdi xiqiang, brothers quarreling at the wall, now means conflict within one’s own group.
A later stanza turns. “When the troubles are over and there is peace and quiet, though one has brothers, they are not as good as friends.”
Three Monks
The animated film Three Monks was made by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio in 1980 and directed by Xu Jingda, known as A Da. It has no dialogue. It is based on a folk saying: “One monk carries water on a pole. Two monks carry it between them. Three monks have no water to drink.”
The film won the Golden Rooster Award for best animated film and a Silver Bear at the 32nd Berlin International Film Festival.
Knowledge for the Ingroup
In 2000, the researchers Chow, Deng and Ho published a survey of 142 managers on how openly knowledge is shared inside organizations. They reported in the Journal of Management Accounting Research that managers in China “shared knowledge significantly less with a potential recipient who was not a member of their ingroup.”
Elders First
The Dizigui (弟子规), a rhyming primer of the Qing dynasty, sets out how a child behaves toward elders. “Eating or drinking, sitting or walking, the elder goes first and the younger after.” (或饮食，或坐走，长者先，幼者后) “When addressing an elder, do not call him by his name.” (称尊长，勿呼名) “In front of an elder, keep the voice low.”
The text is generally attributed to Li Yuxiu, a scholar of the Kangxi era. Jia Cunren later revised it and gave it its present title. It is built on a line from the Analects: a young man is filial at home and respectful to his elders outside.
Three Kinds of Silence
In 2008, four researchers published a study in Acta Psychologica Sinica (心理学报) on the measurement of employee silence in the Chinese context. They surveyed 928 employees with a questionnaire of their own design. They found that employee silence takes three forms: acquiescent silence, indifferent silence and defensive silence.
Trust in the superior reduced all three. Trust in the organization reduced only the first two. It had no significant effect on defensive silence.
Good-Guy-ism
In September 2013, People’s Daily Online, carrying a Xinhua report, gave Xi Jinping’s call to “firmly oppose liberalism and good-guy-ism (好人主义) in Party life.” A Hebei official described the habit of avoiding conflict: “Afraid of touching contradictions, they plant more flowers and fewer thorns.” (多栽花少栽刺)
In 2021, an article in People’s Daily wrote: “A spirit of harmony, Mr. Nice Guys, you are good, I am good, everyone is good. This is not unity. It is slackness, and also a kind of numbness.”
The Vocabulary of Not Saying No
不置可否 To set down neither yes nor no. To give no position at all.
打哈哈 To go “haha.” To brush someone off and deal with a matter only on the surface.
打官腔 To speak in the official tone. To use official set phrases to deal with a request or to pass it on.
搪塞 To plug one hole. From an image in the Huainanzi of a dike with ten thousand holes, of which only one is plugged. To deal with something only for form’s sake.
婉拒 To refuse gently. To decline in a roundabout, polite way.