COLD COMFORT

BY SUN JIAHUI (孙佳慧)

社交汉语SOCIA L CHINE SE

COLD COMFORT

BY SUN JIAHUI (孙佳慧)

How to provide solace amid misery

安慰别人的时候，除了“想开点儿”，你还能说些什么？

A pessimistic Chinese saying goes, “Eight or nine out of ten things in life are not as you wish.” (人生不如意事十之八九。Rénshēng bùrúyì shì shí zhī bā jiǔ.) Yes, existence may be little more than a trudge from chore to chore, broken only by flashes of joy or tragedy, so the least you can do is help out a friend in need. The fact is, however, that comforting someone is a strange business, language-wise. In English, it’s common to say, “there, there”, but where is the “there” to which the first “there” is referring? It’s madness. For the art of comforting in Chinese, always apply the right strategy, or, as another saying goes,“Apply medicine according to the symptoms (对症下药duì zhèng xià yào).”

First of all, you should learn the phrase 想开点儿 (xiǎng kāi diǎnr), which roughly means “let it go”, a platitude everyone loves to use but hates to hear. Use this cliché sparingly because it can do more harm than good when trotted out too promptly or too often. Most people don’t want such coldheartedly rational advice; they just want to vent their emotions. For you, as listener, a good rule of thumb is to just amplify the complainer’s emotion. If they are angry, get angrier. If they are crying, cry with them and cry harder.

MISERY LOVES COMPANY, AND MINOR SETBACKS ARE COMPLETELY INfATUATED WITH BIG-LEAGUE CATASTROPHE

A: I can’t believe he cheated on me! How could he do that?

Tā jūrán piàn wǒ! Zěnme huì zhèyàng!

他居然骗我！怎么会这样！

B: It happened once, it will happen again. Get rid of him!

Yǒu yī jiù yǒu èr, gēn tā fēnshǒu!

有一就有二，跟他分手！

A: We’ve been together for so many years...

Wǒmen zài yìqǐ hěnduō nián le...

我们在一起很多年了……

B: He’s just scum, so why not dump him? Tā jiùshì yí gè zhānán! Gàn má bù shuǎi le tā?

他就是一个渣男！干吗不甩了他?

Keep in mind that it’s a risky maneuver to persuade someone into ending a relationship. You can’t really anticipate your friend’s emotions so be sure to hedge your bets. Otherwise, you’ll end up in an awkward position when emotions cool and the relationship heals.

Another strategy is known as“showing a bigger scar”, entirely unrelated to the movie Jaws. Rather, it has to do with the Hong Kong TV series Men Don’t Cry, which has the line, “If you are unhappy, tell us, so we can be happy! (你有什么不开心的，说出来让大家开心一下！ Nǐ yǒu shénme bù kāixīn de, shuō chūlai ràng dàjiā kāixin yíxia!)” People might not actually enjoy their friends’misfortune, but letting someone know that your life is also a mess can be extremely comforting. Misery loves company, and minor setbacks are completely infatuated with big-league catastrophe.

A: I have been working like a dog, but can’t get a promotion or a pay raise. Many of my peers are already managers. Wǒ yìzhí pīnmìng gōngzuò, dàn jiùshì bùnéng shēngzhí jiāxīn. Xǔduō gēn wǒ tóngshí rùzhí de tóngshì dōu yǐjīng shì jīnglǐ le.

我一直拼命工作，但就是不能升职加薪。许多跟我同时入职的同事都已经是经理了。

B: I understand, but it’s not that bad. To tell you the truth, I haven’t been promoted in four years!

Wǒ míngbai nǐ de gǎnshòu, dàn shìqing yě méi nàme zāo. Shíhuà gàosu nǐ, wǒ yǐjīng sì nián méi shēngzhí le!

我明白你的感受，但事情也没那么糟。实话告诉你，我已经四年没升职了！

A: I know that’s life, but I really feel bad. Wǒ zhīdào shēnghuó jiùshì zhèyàng de, dàn wǒ xīnli zhēn de bù shūfu.

我知道生活就是这样的，但我心里真的不舒服。

B: Come on! I heard that Tom lost his job last week. At least you are in a much better place than us!

Bié zhèyàng! Wǒ tīngshuō Tāngmǔ shàngzhōu gānggāng shīyè, nǐ de chǔjìng zhìshǎo bǐ wǒmen hǎo.

别这样！我听说汤姆上周刚刚失业，你的处境至少比我们好。

Although this can give your friend a boost, you risk sounding like someone who makes every piece of drama about themselves. As long as you take care to not sound too dismissive,you can all have fun looking on the bright side of life. This method can be applied to current events as well as affairs of the heart.

fOR SOME, OPTIMISM CAN CONSOLE; OTHERS JUST WANT YOU TO ROLL AROUND IN THE MUCK WITH THEM fOR A WHILE

A: Oh my god! Tom Hiddleston got together with Taylor Swift! My heart has been broken into pieces!

Tiān a! Dǒusēn hé Méimei zài yìqǐ le! Wǒ de xīn yǐjīng suì chéng zhār le!

天啊！抖森和霉霉在一起了！我的心已经碎成渣儿了！

Their odds of actually getting to take a ride on the Loki train may be slim, but that’s no reason to be cruel to your fangirl friends. So, put everything aside, and just say: “Take it easy. You should feel lucky that it’s Taylor, because they will totally break up soon! (别激动! 你应该庆幸是泰勒！因为他们很快就会分手的！Bié jīdòng! Nǐ yīnggāi qìngxìng shì Tàilè! Yīnwèi tāmen hěn kuài jiù huì fēnshǒu de!)” See? There’s the inevitable bright side.

When in doubt, you can always reach for a helpful Chinese proverb; if a friend loses his wallet on the bus, you can console him by saying, “It is said that ‘an unexpected loss can cancel out misfortunes,’ so don’t worry about it. (俗话说‘破财消灾’嘛，算了吧。Súhuà shuō ‘pò cái xiāo zāi' ma, suàn le ba.)”

If their misery is about something other than money, you can go for another useful proverb, “塞翁失马，焉知非福 (sài wēng shī mǎ, yān zhī fēi fú),” which literally means, “An old frontiersman loses his horse, but it could be a blessing in disguise.” The phrase relates to a story about an old man whose horse runs away, but then returns with several wild horses from the neighboring country. So if you want to say “a blessing in disguise”, just give the horse phrase a go.

A: I was fired today. I really don’t know what to do.

Wǒ jīntiān bèi chǎo yóuyú le. Wǒ zhēn bù zhīdào gāi zěnme bàn le.

我今天被炒鱿鱼了。我真不知道该怎么办了。

B: Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. Haven’t you always wanted to go back to university to further your studies? This is your chance.

Sài wēng shī mǎ, yān zhī fēi fú. Nǐ bú shì yìzhí xiǎng huí dàxué shēnzào ma ? Xiànzài zhènghǎo yǒu jīhuì le.

塞翁失马，焉知非福。你不是一直想回大学深造吗？现在正好有机会了。

Again, remember that there is no panacea for personal pain. For some, optimism can console; others just want you to roll around in the muck with them for a while. Some folks, however, are more practical and need answers more than they need consoling.

A: I am afraid my restaurant may go

bankrupt soon. I didn’t make any profit this month.

Ai! Wǒ de cāntīng yào dǎobì le, zhège yuè yì fēn qián yě méi zhuàndào.

唉！我的餐厅要倒闭了，这个月一分钱也没赚到。

B: Well, your food is delicious. You just need to work more on the marketing.

Why not try some promotional events for the Christmas season?

Shípǐn méi wènti, hěn hǎochī. Zhǐshì yào zài yíngxiāo shang xià diǎnr gōngfu. Shèngdànjié qījiān gǎogao cùxiāo zěnmeyàng ?

食品没问题，很好吃。只是要在营销上下点儿功夫。圣诞期间搞搞促销怎么样？

Try to avoid starting sentences with,“you should have...” No matter how right you are, it’s still likely that your friend will call you Captain Hindsight and punch you in the face.

Dealing with the depressed is difficult; you never know if you should tell a joke or make a stirring speech. But don’t worry, as long as you care, your friends will notice. You just need to make it clear that you are there to listen, that you’re on their side. For this, there is one phrase you need above all: “If you need help, just say the word (需要帮忙的话, 尽管开口。Xūyào bāngmáng dehuà, jǐnguǎn kāikǒu. )”

Its sky lies just beneath the bottom of the ocean of our human world. The people there, who are not unlike us, know the magic that governs the natural rhythms of Earth. This is the setting of the animated arthouse film Big Fish & Begonia, directed by Liang Xuan (梁旋) and Zhang Chun (张春). China’s starved realm of quality animated cinema has been salivating for a homegrown animated hit for a long time, so the film generated a decent buzz long before its first screening.

The market for animated films in China has been long dominated by Hollywood giants Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks. For Chinese audiences, there seems to be a void in the canon that can only be filled with animated works that speak to the audience in their own language—not the arbitrary potpourri of kung fu, red lanterns, and cousins named Dim and Sum found in works like the Kung Fu Panda trilogy and Mulan. Expectations have been building for some time, so naturally, polarized reviews of Big Fish & Begonia are to be expected.

The film is the story of Chun, who, like her mother before her, is a goddess of the world of Begonia. As part of a coming-of-age ceremony, the 16-year-olds of her world are sent to the human world for seven days, disguised as red dolphins. On the seventh day (spoilers ahead) they must return, but Chun is trapped in a fishing net. After being saved by