Chinese Quotes

“The Chinese say it’s better to be deprived of food for three days than tea for one.”

“A Chinese poet many centuries ago noticed that to re-create something in words is like being alive twice.”

“I once heard Alan Watts observe that a Chinese child will ask, “How does a baby grow?” But an American child will ask, “How do you make a baby?” From an early age, we absorb our culture’s arrogant conviction that we manufacture everything, reducing the world to mere “raw material” that lacks all value until we impose our designs and labor on it.”

″‘Chinese people do many things,’ she said simply. ‘Chinese people do business, do medicine, do painting. Not lazy like American people. We do torture. Best torture.‘”

“And now I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious. It is my family. It is in our blood.”

″‘I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these things do not mix?‘”

“I’ve read hundreds of books about China over the decades. I know the Chinese. I’ve made a lot of money with the Chinese. I understand the Chinese mind.”

“I’ve read hundreds of books about China over the decades. I know the Chinese. I’ve made a lot of money with the Chinese. I understand the Chinese mind.”

Set at the time of the Chinese Boxer Rebellion of 1900. Theodore, the son of American missionaries, escapes when the rebels destroy his father’s settlement and falls in with a foul-mouthed female ex-music-hall star, now a plant-hunter.

“We American-Chinese girls had to whisper to make ourselves American-feminine.”

″‘And if anyone asks, you’re Chinese.’ The boy had nodded. ‘Chinese,’ he whispered. ‘I’m Chinese.‘”