So I’m Taiwanese and speak Mandarin. The quote in the show is in Mandarin and goes, iirc:
船到橋頭自然直，船不直，沒到橋頭
The first part of this Chinese proverb means “the boat will right itself at the dock” and the second parts are “if the boat is not righted, you’re not at the dock yet”the general sense of the proverb is that “you’ll figure things out as you go, and things will fall into place when and if it’s meant to.” The second part of this saying is not common (at least to me as an Taiwanese immigrant). The first part is a Mandarin proverb, so much so that I thought the English was just a translation for the Mandarin proverb cuz I wasn’t familiar with the English version until the show. My theory now is that the show includes Asian writers or at least some sort language aficionado who was able to tie the proverb into the show.
I LOVED this being used in 1899, which takes place on an ocean liner!! It was a chef’s kiss in terms of subtlety and layering in a show. I totally forgot to look up if there’s an 1899 subreddit to talk about this lol
If you want an alternative, I do recommend having a Mandarin-speaking tattoo artist to tattoo the Mandarin version of this quote :)
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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '23 edited Jan 05 '23
So I’m Taiwanese and speak Mandarin. The quote in the show is in Mandarin and goes, iirc:
船到橋頭自然直，船不直，沒到橋頭
The first part of this Chinese proverb means “the boat will right itself at the dock” and the second parts are “if the boat is not righted, you’re not at the dock yet”the general sense of the proverb is that “you’ll figure things out as you go, and things will fall into place when and if it’s meant to.” The second part of this saying is not common (at least to me as an Taiwanese immigrant). The first part is a Mandarin proverb, so much so that I thought the English was just a translation for the Mandarin proverb cuz I wasn’t familiar with the English version until the show. My theory now is that the show includes Asian writers or at least some sort language aficionado who was able to tie the proverb into the show.
I LOVED this being used in 1899, which takes place on an ocean liner!! It was a chef’s kiss in terms of subtlety and layering in a show. I totally forgot to look up if there’s an 1899 subreddit to talk about this lol
If you want an alternative, I do recommend having a Mandarin-speaking tattoo artist to tattoo the Mandarin version of this quote :)