यु हुआ यांचे 'China in Ten Words' हे २०१० साली प्रसिद्ध झालेले पुस्तक खूप गाजले.
ते दहा शब्द आहेत:
Bamboozle ह्या चॅप्टरची सुरवात त्या अशी करतात :
"What is ?* Originally it meant “to sway unsteadily”—like
fishing boats bobbing on the waves, for example, or leaves shaking in the wind.
Later it developed a new life as an idiom particularly popular in northeast
China, derived from another phrase that sounds almost the same: —“to mislead.”
Just as variant strains of the flu virus keep constantly appearing, has in its lexical career diversified itself
into a dazzling range of meanings. Hyping things up and laying it on
thick—that’s . Playing a con trick and ripping somebody off—that’s , too. In
the first sense, the word has connotations of bragging, as well as enticement
and entrapment; in the second sense, it carries shades of dishonesty,
misrepresentation, and fraud. “Bamboozle,” perhaps, is the closest English
equivalent.
In China today, “bamboozle” is a new star in the lexical
firmament, fully the equal of “copycat” in its charlatan status. Both count as
linguistic nouveau riche, but their rises to glory took somewhat different
courses. The copycat phenomenon emerged in collectivist fashion, like bamboo
shoots springing up after spring rain, whereas “bamboozle” had its source in an
individual act of heroism—the hero in question being China’s most influential
comedian, a northeasterner named Zhao Benshan. In a legendary skit performed a
few years ago, Zhao Benshan gave “bamboozling” its grand launch, announcing to
the world:
I can bamboozle the tough into acting tame,
Bamboozle the gent into dumping the dame,
Bamboozle the innocent into taking the blame,
Bamboozle the winner into conceding the game.
I’m selling crutches today, so this is my aim:
I’ll bamboozle a man into thinking he’s lame.
In “Selling Crutches” he proceeds with infinite guile,
trapping the fall guy in one psychological snare after another, exquisitely
employing deception and hoax to lead him down the garden path until in the end
a man whose legs are perfectly normal is convinced he’s a cripple and
purchases—at great expense—a shoddy pair of crutches...."
