"Few and far between" — Phrase of the Week #97
Our Phrase of the Week is: Few and far between (门可罗雀 ménkě luóquè).
The context
Since the middle of January this year, the tag “#piano sales dropped off a cliff” (钢琴销量断崖式下滑) has been trending on Weibo and other social media platforms.
One blogger on Weibo noted:
"The owner of a piano factory said piano sales have completely collapsed. Half of China’s piano factories closed down last year. People who bought their pianos for 50,000 to 60,000 yuan are not able to resell them even for 5,000 yuan."
“一个钢琴厂的老板说钢琴彻底崩盘了，去年一半钢琴厂倒闭了。以前5、6万买的钢琴，今年5000块出手都没人要。”
“Yíge gāngqín chǎng de lǎobǎn shuō gāngqín chèdǐ bēngpán le, qùnián yíbàn gāngqín chǎng dǎobì le. Yǐqián 5,6 wàn mǎi de gāngqín, jīnnián 5000 kuài chūshǒu dōu méi rén yào.”
The two leading Chinese piano companies that once accounted for half of the domestic piano market had a poor year in 2023.
The operating income of Pearl River Piano (珠江钢琴) fell by 31.47% year-on-year, with its net profit plummeting by 93.54%. For Hailun Piano (海伦钢琴), the other big piano manufacturer listed in China, its operating income in the first three quarters of 2023 fell by 21.99% year-on-year, with its net profit down by over 24%.
The piano was once one of the most sought-after musical instruments for China’s aspiring middle-class families.
Since 2008, learning the piano has been hugely popular with Chinese parents, who are willing to pay large sums to buy the instrument and fund expensive lessons. It's seen as a status symbol, and a positive for school and university applications.
But over the past two years, as China’s economy has slowed, parents are looking for ways to reduce family spending. Learning the piano is high cost, with little chance of becoming a viable career.
So with the fall in the number of students learning, sales of the instrument have come down.
It is precisely because there are fewer people learning piano that no one is buying them! Compared with the previous craze, parents are indeed less enthusiastic about encouraging their children to learn the piano. As a result, many teachers have much fewer students compared to before.
正是因为学钢琴的人少了，钢琴才卖不动的！比起以前的热潮，现在家长对让孩子学琴确实没那么热衷了，也使得钢琴老师由门庭若市变为门可罗雀。
Zhèngshì yīnwèi xué gāngqín de rén shǎo le, gāngqín cái mài bú dòng de! Bǐqǐ yǐqián de rècháo, xiànzài jiāzhǎng duì ràng háizi xuéqín quèshí méi nàme rèzhōng le, yě shǐdé gāngqín lǎoshī yóu méntíng ruòshì biànwéi ménkě luóquè.
And with that, we have our Phrase of the Week!
What it means
“Few and far between” is the English translation of a popular four-character idiom.
The direct translation is: “door” (门 mén), “ can” (可 kě), “catch” (罗 luó), “sparrows” (雀 què).
The idiom originates from Records of the Grand Historian (史记 shǐjì), written in the late 2nd century BC to early 1st century BC by Sima Qian 司马迁, one of China’s most important historians.
Records tells the history of China's 24 dynasties over the 2,500-year period from the age of the legendary Yellow Emperor to the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, who reigned from 141 to 87 BC.
The original passage from the Records where our idiom first appears is:
When Duke Zhai of Xiagui was a magistrate in the emperor's court, many people would come to visit him, even causing congestion in front of the door. But when he was removed from the post, no one visited his house any more. It was so quiet that it was possible to catch sparrows there.
下邽翟公有言，始翟公为廷尉，宾客阗门；及废，门外可设雀罗。
Xiàguī zhái gōng yǒu yán, shǐ zhái gōng wéi tíngwèi, bīnkè tiánmén; jí fèi, ménwài kě shè quèluó.
Duke Zhai was a powerful official during the Han dynasty in the second century BC. During his term in office there would often be people waiting at the entrance of his home to see him. But when he fell from power, visitors no longer came to see him.
The scene is described as "so quiet there were only sparrows" at his door, which could easily be caught.
In modern Chinese, it describes a scene, or in this case an industry, that has become quiet or deserted. It's often used with another contrasting idiom, "the entrance of the home is as busy as a market" (门庭若市 méntíng ruòshì).
The contrast makes the visual even more striking: What was once a hugely popular sector with plenty of students is now deserted.
Andrew Methven is the author of Slow Chinese 每周漫闻, a resource to help learners of Chinese maintain and improve their language skills, and keep on top of the latest language trends in China. Read more.