To get rich is glorious

haodawei
July 20, 2007, 06:32 PM posted in General Discussion
The media often quotes Deng Xiaoping's "to get rich is glorious" as a watershead for the PRC. But does anyone know what the Chinese is for this phrase? Did Deng Xiaoping actually say the equivalent phrase in Mandarin?

...For instance, Asiaweek publish an article with the quote as the title:

TO GET RICH IS GLORIOUS

With those words, Deng Xiaoping ignited China's boom,

but it is an even greater achievement that reform can continue without him

By Tim Healy and David Hsieh / Beijing
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excuter
July 20, 2007, 08:36 PM

the google translation: 发财是光荣

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haodawei
May 12, 2010, 08:24 AM

After all these years, why am I commenting on this again? Well, the latest Media lesson 《邓小平南巡讲话》includes a paragraph that details the idea behind the misquotation:

共同富裕的构想是这样提出的:一部分地区有条件先发展起来,一部分地区发展慢点,先发展起来的地区带动后发展的地区,最终达到共同富裕。

It turns out that 'Teapot' quoted this all the way back in 2007.

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excuter
July 20, 2007, 09:14 PM

hurray...wait it wasn´t perfectly correct...it was nearly correct so, it was almost good... anyway 发财和光荣不是真的这么太好对不对呢

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Lantian
July 21, 2007, 01:50 AM

GoodSanitation, (j/k about your name) 好大卫。。。卫生纸 Good question, I've also heard the phrase in English many times, never got around to figuring out what it was in Chinese. Here's some other related words that might help to make the whole phrase stick a little better。 发财是光荣的 (fācái shì guāngróng de) 花光了 - spent all my money (hua guang le) 亮光 - light (liang guang) 漂亮 - pretty (piao liang) 光荣 - glorioius (guang rong) 荣幸 - gratitude (rong xing) 是我的荣幸 - It's my pleasure (shi wo de rong xing) 发财 - get money (fa cai) 恭喜发财 - be prosperous (gong xi fa cai) (I think?) 出发 - begin (chu fa), as in start of a trip. 好的 - 'de' as a mood particle, helps rhyme, etc. 发财是光荣的 (I typed it without looking! :)

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danjo
July 21, 2007, 02:04 AM

In my Chinese music book (I've been making a rather half-assed attempt to learn the 古筝 gǔzhēng) there is a song called 劳动最光荣 láodòng zuì guāngróng. I smile at the thought of a Western music teacher saying "ok kids, turn to page 14, today we're going to learn 'Labor is the Most Glorious'".

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excuter
July 21, 2007, 11:20 AM

to get Rich to post is glorious...;-)

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teapot
July 21, 2007, 11:45 PM

。。。。。。。 i looked for a lot of Chinese websits about deng xiaoping, and i did not find the perfect translation to fit it, but the closest one is this below: 先发展起来的地区带动后发展的地区,最终达到共同富裕 共同富裕的构想是这样提出的:一部分地区有条件先发展起来,一部分地区发展慢点,先发展起来的地区带动后发展的地区,最终达到共同富裕。 ——《在武昌、深圳、珠海、上海等地的谈话要点》(一九九二年一月十八日――二月二十一日) the main meaning is that let some people to get rich fist and then they can lead others to be rich after. Here is the Chinese webside which collect the most important states from Deng xiaoping. If you are interesting, you can go and look at it. http://cpc.people.com.cn/GB/69112/69113/69710/index.html Another one is :http://kzls.xjkunlun.cn/1$001/1$001$028/1$001$028$011/1$001$028$011$018/1$001$028$011$018$009/1$001$028$011$018$009$003/1499.jsp?articleid=2007-6-12-0259

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johnb
July 20, 2007, 08:50 PM

Yup, and what Lao Deng actually said was 发财是光荣的 (fācái shì guāngróng de), so Google (and excuter) were pretty darn close.

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rich
July 22, 2007, 12:32 AM

There you go executer.... bask in the glory...

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excuter
July 22, 2007, 09:42 AM

tadaa...;-)

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excuter
July 22, 2007, 09:44 AM

about that single thing I know that´s hard but if we had someone we couldn´t be around here so much often. So everything has something good.. ;-§

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haodawei
May 12, 2010, 08:16 AM

"Great Idea but Don't Quote Him," argues Evelyn Iritani in the Los Angeles Times. "Deng Xiaoping's famous one-liner started China on the way to capitalism. The only problem is there's no proof he actually said it." (Los Angeles Times, Sep. 9, 2004, A1)

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haodawei
May 12, 2010, 08:19 AM

Wikiquote also argues that this is a misquote: "Deng is commonly quoted with this phrase in western media but there is no proof that he actually said it."

They provide a different translation too:

"致富光荣 (zhìfù guāngróng) To get rich is glorious!"

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rich
July 22, 2007, 12:30 AM

Then why hasn't anyone gotten ME yet? To not be single any more... ah, that would be glorious. :P ha ha. Oh well, patience is a virtue. 耐心是一种美德