Sunday, April 23, 2006

Shaking up hearts around the world

If I met Hu Jintao face to face, I'll ask him about his past dance hobby. Secondary sources tell that according to his official biography, as a student he was a member of the dance team at the university, and occasinally danced solo at parties.

The Chinese word for dancing - tiao4 wu3 - consists of two charaters. Tiao4 means 'to jump'. Wu3 means 'to dance, to wield, to brandish'. I guess there is some deep oriental wisdom in it: according to the fighting hypothesis dancing skill is appreciated by women because it is a peaceful correlate of fighting skill: That the man is able to defend his family when needed, but prefers to stay out of trouble. Therefore, it is natural that the same word refers to brandishing and dancing.

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