Today's Washington Post reports that Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice once again used a suspect aphorism in describing the "challenging time" for the U.S. in the Middle East. "I don't read Chinese, but I am told that the Chinese character for crisis is weiji, which means both danger and opportunity," she said. "And I think that states it very well. We'll try to maximize the opportunity." A possible source for this ersatz erudition? None other than Lisa Simpson, who engaged in this exchange with Homer:
Lisa: "Look on the bright side, Dad. Did you know that the Chinese use the same word for 'crisis' as they do for 'opportunity'?"
Homer: "Yes! Cris-atunity."
Elsewhere, the Post also reports that Victor Mair, professor of Chinese at the University of Pennsylvania, calls this a "grossly inaccurate formulation," saying that the character "ji" actually means "incipient moment" or a "critical point." Weiji should really be translated, he says, as "a genuine crisis, a dangerous moment, a time when things start to go awry."
Well put, Secretary Rice!
