“When written in Chinese, the word crisis is composed of two characters: one represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.” -John F. Kennedy
Wrong.
Just like Churchill made many strategic errors John Kennedy made more than one malapropism. We can debate whether they were intentional or not: I figure they were intentional, and that he was sending hidden messages.
Well, let’s break it down and see! After all: in China I take every dangerous opportunity to eat a jelly donut
said no Kennedy ever.
Because of Kennedy it is often said, wrongly, that the Chinese word for crisis is “danger and opportunity” or, less frequently, “chaos and opportunity”.
Unfortunately for poets everywhere: wrong.
Chaos is 混乱 hun4 luan4, which means “mixed + disordered”. 混mixed 乱disorder
Crisis is 危机. 危 indeed means “danger” but 机 means the actuator of a machine and thus: trigger (less frequently but quite exactly) machine (more frequently).
机会jihjui machine + meeting does however mean opportunity 机会This is likely the reason for Kennedy’s error, which is also found in CEDict. CEDict is usually correct but they dropped the ball on this one.
Going with that logic: 计算机 means calculator. So we could as easily (and as accurately…) say that “the Chinese word for crisis is danger and calculator”. It isn’t.
The misattribution does not appear to be the result of homophones. I checked. The following colocations are all weiji, albeit some have different tones. None of them appear to imply 机会 Cross-talkers take note!
| hanzi | pinyin | baidu | literally means | |
| 危机 | Wéijī | danger+trigger=crisis | ||
| 危急 | Wéijí | critical | critical | danger+worry=critical |
| 微机 | wēijī | Microcomputer | microcomputer | small+machine=computer |
| 维基 | wéijī | Wiki | wiki | hold together+base |
| 为己 | wéi jǐ | For yourself | for personal interest | because+self |
| 未及 | wèi jí | Not in time | Not in time | not yet + extreme=not in time |
| 慰籍 | wèi jí | Comfort | solace | to comfort+registry (Landbuch) |
| 违纪 | wéijì | Breach of discipline | Violation of discipline | disobey+era |
| 为继 | wéi jì | To follow | Follow | because+continue |
The closest we can get to danger and opportunity for 危机 is to remember that the original meaning of 机 is the trigger of a machine, specifically a crossbow. If there is poetic justice then there must also be poetic injustice: Apparently the penalty for confusing trigger and opportunity is death.
And thus you shall remember:
机ji1 is a machine. Specifically it is the trigger of a crossbow. In modernity, the crossbow is illustrated as two separated parts as machines can indeed be broken down into their components just like Chinese characters can. The stock of the crossbow is on the left. The bow is on the right. Superimpose them mentally to see the image.
危机 is crisis. It does not mean opportunity.
Here endeth the lesson.