China In One Word: Bamboozle!....Yu Hua's 2010 Book

The Guardian, April 17 2020: “Friday briefing: China admits Wuhan deathtoll 50% higher”

यु हुआ यांचे 'China in Ten Words' हे २०१० साली प्रसिद्ध झालेले पुस्तक खूप गाजले.

ते दहा शब्द आहेत:

 People

 Leader

 Reading

 Writing

 Lu Xun

 Revolution

 Disparity

 Grassroots

 Copycat

 Bamboozle (忽悠)

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...."