In response to a question from a French listener, we’ll talk with a student from Paris about his life in Beijing and his impressions of the Chinese.

In Chinese Idioms, we’ll study an idiom used to mock someone who holds an office or a position without having the requisite skills.

The idiom is Làn Yú Chōng Shù 滥竽充数, to pass oneself off as a Yu player in an ensemble.

But first, let’s open our mailbox and see what’s been waiting for us there.

2005-3-22 22:36:12  |  Norman A. Timineri  |  USA 

My wife is from Shanghai, I have two great children. We travel back every year to our home in Shanghai. Thank you for the little slices of life brought to me through your website. At one time my only direct contact with China was "China Today", black and white pictures and black and white print, with English as a poor translation of what was being related.

2005-3-14 17:10:20  |  D. J. Murray  |  Canada 

I enjoy your website, but feel that you should narrow the page width so that my "favorites" window can still be shown on the side. See the Canadian CBC website as an example.

You understand DJ’s request? He wants to see both the CRI page and his favourite links on the same screen. Certainly it’s easy technically, but our philosophy is to offer as much information as possible on one page. I’m afraid D. J. has to close his favourites window to have a full page of the CRI website.

Another Canadian Eric.Walton complains about the production of a recent edition of Listener's Garden. That's our program.

"I missed the first three minutes of the program, because the Background music drowned out what was being said.  Fortunately the music stopped after three minutes and I enjoyed the program, in particular with the story of Brian Kendall introducing Chinese Culture into his primary school curriculum. "

When it comes to the music, You’re perfectly right. I found the same problem: the background music was a bit too loud. We’ll have to be more careful in our production.

Brian's story reminds Christer Brunstrom of Sweden of his own experience.  He says:

"I work at a very similar school here in Sweden. 28% of our pupils come from other countries. Most have come as refugees in order to get away from horrible living conditions in their home countries. We've had to adapt a lot and we have to become a multi-cultural school paying special attention to religious matters, etc. I helped organize Latin American Cultural Days several years ago when we had many pupils from Chile. The topic of cross culture is quite important in today's rapidly changing world and certainly is worthy of continued attention in your programmes."

David.Goldy from the UK.  05-3-11 0:00:00 Input by:gaohuiying 

I would like to be on 'voices from other lands.' i support a team of surgeons from the west who travel to China to carry out free operations on children who have 'cleft lip'. I also have a number of Chinese friends here in England who are very famous musicians, i also have show business friends in China. I think i could put together a very interesting program for you.

Thank you for your interest. The producer of Voices from Other Lands” Jenny Niven is going to email you for further information.

2005-3-14 23:09:17  |  simon negash  |  Eritrea ,  a radio producer in English. Our counterpart.

I heard your radio show on a Saturday and i found it really interesting. It was accidental when I found you on the airwave. I am going to listen to it and would like to contribute some of my impressions about Chinese culture and development.

Yes, Simon, we appreciate it if you’ll write to us more.

2005-3-19 3:36:48  |  Richard Cuff  |  USA 

We were pleased to have CRI representatives with us at the 18th Winter SWL Festival. I hope they enjoyed their visit with us! I have heard that CRI plans to be on shortwave 24 hours/day -- Does this shortwave broadcast target North America or the world as a whole? I would also be interested in information regarding any programming changes planned for the launch of the spring 2005 schedule in one week. 

Shortwave 24 hours a day? I haven’t heard of it. But we are indeed planning for programming changes, for example, we’re thinking of shortening most feature programs from 25 minutes to 15 minutes. Certainly we’ll tell you about the changes once they’re finalized.

Josh.Craben  USA  ask: M by:  2005-3-7 0:00:00 Input by:lizheng 

“Is the average Chinese citizen taught Chinese history? Like,maybe in schools or something? I was just reading a book about ancient China. I borrowed it from my history teacher Your past is very interesting .”

Yes, Chinese students learn a lot of historical stories in elementary schools. History becomes a formal course after they enter high school. They study Chinese history and world history in succession. So the American names like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and are pretty known to them.  

Topics Of the Week

Jacques.Augustin  France  M by:  2004-12-27 

Our long-time listener Jacques Augustin of France asks if there are many French people in China? How do the Chinese people see the French culture? Are they interested? Well, today, Peichun will talk with Romain.Brillie, a French student in Beijing. I hope Jacques can find the answer in their conversation.

Chinese Idioms

Làn Yú Chōng Shù

滥  竽   充   数

The other day I went to buy frozen shrimps for supper.

Of course. I know you love seafood.
The shop said they were very fresh. But when the shrimps had thawed, my wife noticed that several of them were in pretty bad shape. She pronounced: Some of these old shrimps are there just to Làn Yú Chōng Shù, or to make up the numbers. It’s simply not fair!

No, it's not fair that you ended up with such a small supper, but happily your wife did indirectly suggest an idiom for our discussion. Làn Yú Chōng Shù, which literally means, "To pass oneself off as an Yu player within an ensemble."

The Yu is an ancient Chinese windpipe, which the protagonist of our story uses for an objective far removed from the making of music.

Let’s find out how he convinces people of his musical talent, and what becomes of his deceit.

During the Warring States Period over 2,200 years ago, the King of the State of Qi was very fond of listening to yu ensembles. He often got together 300 yu players to form a grand line-up of striking, majestic music. The king treated his musicians well, giving them good meals as payment.

A man named Nanguo heard about the king’s hobby, and thought to himself, “If only I were part of the band!” As soon as there was a vacancy, he managed to join the ensemble even though he didn’t know how to play the instrument. And it didn’t matter! Whenever the band played for the king, Nanguo just stood in the line-up and pretended to play. Nobody realized that he wasn’t making a sound. So he got his meals just as the other musicians did. And he was happy with his lot.

Things went on this way until the king died, and his son became the new ruler. Like his father, the new king liked music played on the yu. But unlike his father, he didn’t like listening to ensembles. He preferred solos. He therefore ordered the musicians to play the yu one by one.

Nanguo became more and more frightened as his turn approached. “What shall I do! The king will behead me if he knows I’m unable to play.” On the dark night before it was his turn to play solo, Nanguo sneaked out of the palace, never to return.

The idiom Làn Yú Chōng Shù 滥竽充数 sums up this fable, to pass oneself off as a Yu player in an ensemble. It’s an idiom which is used to mock someone who holds an office or a position without having the requisite skills. It’s also sometimes used to talk about inferior goods being included in a batch just to make up the numbers or boost the weight.It’s nearly always a negative term, although you can also hear people using it on themselves for the sake of modesty.

By the way, will you be preparing an idiom for next week’s show?Oh, it’s OK, I’ll let you do it. I don’t know much about idioms, so I wouldn’t want to Làn Yú Chōng Shù. Mmm, in this case, I’m not sure if the idiom represents modesty, or just plain laziness.  

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