Americans are fond of referring to their country as "the greatest nation on earth". Until recently, I didn't believe any country deserved that description. But today I think there is a strong contender for the title.

China is the world's oldest living civilisation. It has recovered from over a century of colonial oppression and lifted its citizens out of poverty. As its growth continues, China is poised to become the world's largest economy and a technology leader that is second to none. By 2030, I believe it will be an indisputable fact that China is the greatest nation on earth.

I need to understand China, from a Chinese perspective. This is my journey.

Monday, 20 December 2021

Why BUPA Needn't Have Been Afraid Of Biting The Wax Tadpole

We've all heard the apocryphal story of how, when Coca-Cola first went to China, the Chinese characters they used to spell the brand name turned out to mean "Bite the wax tadpole". Thereafter, the company changed the Chinese rendering of their brand name somewhat (to 可口可乐 kě kǒu kě lè), which means "let the mouth rejoice", or literally "can mouth can happy".

Recently, while watching a Chinese movie, I heard one of the characters say, "I'm not afraid", and this gave me a terrific idea.

[Aside: That movie ("A Beautiful Life") was a tear-jerker, by the way. Don't watch it. I made the mistake of thinking it was a rom-com and was blindsided by the unending series of bad things that happen to good people. I like movies where bad things happen to bad people. Note to self - never watch movies with unusually cheery titles.

On second thoughts, the movie wasn't actually that bad. Maybe you might like it. But keep a tissue box handy.]

What the character said in Mandarin was, "我不怕 wǒ bù pà", literally "I not afraid".

I immediately thought of the insurance company BUPA (originally an acronym for British United Provident Association).

Why, BUPA could just go to China without changing anything about their brand name. Isn't "Not afraid" a terrific name for an insurance company?

Afraid of risk? Buy a policy from the Not Afraid insurance company and you don't need to be afraid anymore.

But as my research showed, BUPA in China is known by a different set of characters - 保柏 bǎo bǎi. 保 bǎo means "insurance", which is not bad, but 柏 bǎi means "cedar" or "cypress", which doesn't mean anything related to insurance.

I wonder why they didn't just go with that.

[Whenever I start learning a foreign language, the wordplay puns popping up in my head give me lots of ideas for creative ad copy, such as my idea for a Bessemer ad in German: "Gut. Besser. Bessemer." (Good. Better. Bessemer.) Ad agencies should hire me as a creative consultant.]

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