Wednesday, May 13, 2020

[rjbhnvvl] Great Leap Forward[sic]

The Great Leap Forward is a confusing name for an event that definitely did not move China forward.  Therefore, when referring to it in historical context, consider always writing its name as "Great Leap Forward[sic]".

How do you write that in Chinese?  That is, what is the Chinese equivalent of [sic]?

Omit [sic] if the context is propaganda (for example, as was originally the case).  Or more precisely, the omission of [sic] signals that the work that is making reference to the Great Leap Forward[sic] is itself propaganda.  (Of course, the presence of [sic] could also indicate propaganda, e.g., anti-Chinese propaganda.  This post could be considered such anti-Chinese propaganda, at least from a pro-Chinese point of view.)

Or, consider using the term more frequently in metaphorical context to mean terrible social policy, so that the ironic meaning of the phrase becomes more widely understood.  What other things could be labeled a Great Leap Forward?

There's a bit of difficulty in that any enacted social policy, no matter how terrible, always benefits someone, so it could be unironically a Great Leap Forward for them.  Therefore, we probably need to specify who is hurt by the policy, for example: "The Trail of Tears was a Great Leap Forward for Native Americans."

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