Trope: Chinese word for crisis is composed of elements danger and opportunity (maybe 1937) or 1934

Fri Oct 22 14:08:29 UTC 2010

According to Google Books:
Michigan Christian advocate: Volume 61, Issue 1, 1934

United Methodist Church (U.S.). Detroit Conference, United Methodist Church (U.S.). West Michigan Conference - 1934 - Snippet view
"Wei-Chi"— Danger Plus Opportunity THE annual report of one of our Boards this ..
As the Chinese word for "crisis," it is rightly declared to be more expressive than our English word. It is composed of two words, "wei" (danger), and "chi" (opportunity). Does not this imported word suggest our missionary situation ? ...

(I have sent for a paper copy from storage--the volume and year match-- to check)

[ this seems rather similar in tone as well as date (zeitgeist?) to the "may you live in interesting times" story]

Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson

________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2010 2:50 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Trope: Chinese word for crisis is composed of              elements danger              and opportunity (maybe 1937)

FWIW, the important passage cited by Garson finishes with the words, "a
discovery which makes China and every mission land seem nearer."

The tiny picture of the cover/title page shown by GB includes a tiny date
which is nearly illegible but almost certainly ends with the numeral "7."

JL
On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 2:33 PM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Trope: Chinese word for crisis is composed of elements danger
> and
>              opportunity (maybe 1937)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Ben was able to find a great 1938 cite when he searched for this trope
> a few years ago, and1938 still appears to be the earliest date.
>
> Here is a link into Google Books that shows a snippet of a work that
> is probably properly dated 1937.
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=nUrPAAAAMAAJ&q=meaningful#search_anchor
>
> (Snippet text)
>
> The inscribing was generously done by Pastor Y. C. Ching of the First
> Baptist Church of Shanghai. Doubly meaningful are these characters:
> one is the Chinese way of describing danger; the other pictures
> opportunity. Synonyms of the English word crisis have been discovered
> likewise to be danger, opportunity—a discovery which makes ...
>
> The cover displayed by Google Books says the volume is the "Report of
> the Forty-ninth Annual Meeting of the Woman's Missionary Union,
> Auxiliary to Southern Baptist Convention". The Duke catalog says the
> 37th meeting was held in 1925 and the 38th was held in 1926.
> Extrapolating suggests the 49th was held in 1937 which is consistent
> with the date assigned by Google Books.
>
> HathiTrust has the work and also gives it a date of 1937. It is
> "Limited (search only)".
>
> http://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89096037247
>
> Checking this on paper is a hassle since it is not available in many
> libraries – none near me. The date could be inaccurate if several
> convention reports are combined in one volume, or for other reasons.
>
> Garson
>
> On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 12:27 PM, Ben Zimmer
> <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: well-traveled snowclone
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 9:00 AM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >>  An old business snowclone involves the alleged danger/opportunity or
> >> risk/opportunity duality in a single character. Another version that
> >> made it into Tom Wolfe's novels is that the Chinese word for "crisis" is
> >> composed of two symbols--for danger and for opportunity.
> >>
> >> Language Log had covered this before:
> >>
> >> http://bit.ly/c9HFXl
> >>
> >> with a nod to a more direct debunking
> >>
> >> http://bit.ly/cWaoWs
> >>
> >> This morning, on Colorado Public Radio, Tom Tancredo invented yet
> >> another version:
> >>
> >> "Chinese symbol for opportunity and problem is the same symbol."
> >
> > For historical background on the spread of the trope, both in its
> > "crisis = danger + opportunity" and "crisis = opportunity" variants,
> > see my Language Log post:
> >
> > http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004343.html
> >
> > Related posts listed here:
> >
> > http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1212
> >
> > --bgz
> >
> >
> > --
> > Ben Zimmer
> > http://benzimmer.com/
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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