Common Phrases in Chinese and English

I like some of the phrases in Chinese that have a parallel counterpart in English. They speak to the commonality of both peoples.

1.a 牛牽到北京,還是牛

2.b You can take the boy out of the country but you can't take the country out of the boy.

The Chinese can be translated as; "You can take a cow to Beijing, but it is still a cow." Beijing is the Imperial Capital, the home of culture and sophistication, but it doesn't change the cow. The English phrase relates to America going from an agricultural country to an urban one. People just don't change because their location has changed.

2.a 畫蛇添足

2.b Gild the Lilly

The Chinese can be translated as "painting legs on a snake." The story goes that two artists were in a competition and were told to draw a snake. The first artist finishes and it satisfied with his art. But he notices that the second artist is still working. Thinking he should also be working he paints legs on his snake. He probably loses the competition. "Gild the Lilly" comes from A Shakespearean play, the Lilly is a beautiful flower there is no need to paint it with gold(gilding). Both phrases warn against doing too much, less is more.


3.a 一朝被蛇咬,十年怕錦繩

3.b snake-bitten

The Chinese can be translated as "Once bitten by the snake, for 10 years afraid of the rope." Both are an admonition about being too careful.

4.a 井底青蛙

4.b He has blinders on.

The Chinese can be translated as "a frog at the bottom of a well." The story goes that a frog thinks his world is perfect at the bottom of a well because he hasn't see outside of the well. The English, "blinders", refers to part of a horse bridle that shields a horse from seeing to the left and right. The horse can only see straight ahead and so can't be spooked by what happens on the sides of the road.
Both relate to "tunnel vision.".

Mainland Chinese are like "the frogs at the bottom of the well", they see only a part of the world and are content with their situation(for now).

In both English and Chinese, everyone knows the story that goes with the phrase. Just a few words of the phrase and the meaning is clear.