The "inscrutable" Chinese

[griz326]

The British often used the word "inscrutable" to define the Chinese. I never took that to be some sort of racial slur, but more of a description.

 

Here is the dictionary definition of "inscrutable:"

 

1. incapable of being investigated, analyzed, or scrutinized; impenetrable.

2. not easily understood; mysterious; unfathomable: an inscrutable smile.

3. incapable of being seen through physically; physically impenetrable: the inscrutable depths of the ocean.

 

So does your wife exhibit "inscrutability?"

If so, what sorts of behaviors make you believe that is a fair description?

[amberjack1234]

What an understatement. With my wife everything is a secret. I mean everything.

 

Larry

[Sam and Fen]

With my fiancee information is on a need to know basis.

 

She will not tell me anything till absolutely necessary.

 

After we got the visa we invited all the family out for dinner. She invited her parents, her 2 brothers and her best friend but would not invite her sister.

She made all kinds of excuses "oh she is too busy to come" etc. Finally when I put my foot down she called her sister who did come with her husband and daughter to the dinner.

 

To date she has not told me why she was so reluctatant to invite her sister.

 

[TLB]

I did a google search on "inscrutable Chinese" just for grins and found this interesting document. It was a pamphlet created during WWII "to increase the effectiveness of the soldiers and officers as fighters during the war and as citizens after the war." <isn't the Internet amazing?>

 

This pamphlet is entitled "Who Are the Chinese?" and it's interesting as a pretty early document trying to help bridge cultural divides (they were after all our Allies!).

 

http://www.historians.org/projects/GIround...se/Chinese2.htm

[griz326]

I did a google search on "inscrutable Chinese" just for grins and found this interesting document. It was a pamphlet created during WWII "to increase the effectiveness of the soldiers and officers as fighters during the war and as citizens after the war."

 

 

Excellent article. I would be great to see an updated version of this, although it matches my understanding of China. It is not dissimiliar to what the government told us when we, I, visited China in 1978.

[HongKong2LA]

That is a great article TLB. Thanks for sharing it.

[Guest Tony n Terrific]

What an understatement. With my wife everything is a secret. I mean everything.

 

Larry

Why do you think they call it the mysterious Orient.