Today's Chinese Idiom story —— Fine feathers make fine birds？

佛要金装，人靠衣装 - fo2 yao4 jin1 zhuang1 , ren2 kao4 yi1 zhuang1

A Buddha must be adorned with gold as man must rely on impressive garments. This is an ancient Chinese expression which stresses the importance of how dress style influences appearance. Much like how the Buddha draws on it's solemn dignity through gold.

In the Qing Dynasty, Cai Dongfan - a well known historian, spent 10 years documenting and writing a historical biography of the late Empress Dowager Cixi. When Cixi first entered the court, she came from a poor family and was unable to afford nice clothes, her appearance, dull. However, she soon became favoured by the then current Empress Dowager for her commitment to the court and Emperor, and received new clothes made with better material and decorated with jade and gold. With her new attire, her appearance gave her more favour in the court and allowed her to bear a son with the Emperor. When her son became the Emperor himself, she became the Empress Dowager. Such is an example of how change of attire can change the appearance and appeal of a person.

Another expression with a similar meaning is "A flower is not complete without it's leaves, together they are more beautiful." A direct translation of the original Chinese expression which expresses the importance of the leaves that decorate the flower, making it more beautiful. As with most expressions there are many ways of expressing the moral sentiment and perhaps the most well known expression in English that captures the same meaning is "Fine feathers make fine birds." Regardless of which expression used, the emphasis is on how superficial decoration and packaging such as fine attire can contribute to the elevation of ones physical appearance and appeal.

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But is the manner of dressing really that important?

There are a significant number of people who believe that the utmost important quality in a person is their inner self. Less importance should be placed on the individuals exterior appearance. However, as people become more busy with their lives and careers often dealing with a lot of pressure and stress, they have less time to spend on getting to know people's inner depths. Usually, the first impression plays a vital role in deciding :

a. I need to befriend this person.
b. I'd like to spend more time getting to know them.
c. If possible avoid.
d. Avoid like the plague.

Fairy tale hair make-overs

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In one study, it is shown that when a person meets another person, the first impressions are formed with 55% visual and 38% aural stimulus. Meanwhile, only 7% of what you converse about actually contributes to what people think of you when they first meet you. So, this tells us that our subconscious mind favours those we consider having acceptable outer appearances before we decide on getting to know them better.

When your furry friends get haircuts

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The secret seating arrangements in restaurants：

A documentary was made for Channel 4 called 《Tricks of the restaurant trade》and revealed some of the dark secrets of the restaurant trade. One shocking revelation was how the restaurants would make seating arrangements based on the appearance of the guest diners. In the documentary, two models were sent to three different high end restaurants in London. Each time, they were invited to sit in the most visible and central table of the restaurant. After the two models left the restaurant, one of the hosts of the show - Adam Pearson (who has severe facial disfigurement due to a rare genetic disorder) expressed his intention to sit at the now vacated tables previously used by the models. However, each time, the restaurant attendants would tell him that both the restaurant and bar were full.

In another restaurant, Pearson waited patiently for a very long time to no avail. Finally, Pearson and his companions were offered a table in a narrow and secluded corner of the restaurant whilst the two models were offered seats by the French windows almost immediately.

Good-looking people sitting by the window act like free advertisement to the restaurant. It is as if these are unwritten rules of the trade. However, these unwritten rules are not just practised at this restaurant, this country or even this trade. Judging people by their appearance is prevalent world wide, the result of people becoming superficial and callous.

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People's attitudes towards attire ：

Anano was then dressed up in rags and dirty clothing, again visiting a restaurant and sitting with strangers. This time, the response was vastly different. Guests would quickly avoid her fearing that she is a pick-pocket or thief, they even told the restaurant attendants to kick her out of the restaurant. In the same scenario as before, Anano was then asked to stand in the street looking lost, except this time wearing dirty rag clothes. Nobody came to see if she was OK. In fact, this made Anano feel so distressed that she cried and the experiment was ended. This was a frightening illustration of people's negligence to homeless children but moreover a sad reflection of how appearance and the judgement of appearance can lead to great harm.

Therefore, in China there is another expression which says : "People should not be judged by their appearance". Similar to the English expression "Don't judge a book by it's cover", the moral of the expression is that appearance cannot determine someones innate qualities. Most successful people would not attribute their success to the way they look, and rightfully should be proud of the inner qualities which have afforded them their success.

An ancient Chinese fable：

Welcome to my world of Idioms #1——5

Teaching fish to swim
Love me, love my dog
To put the cart before the horse
One man's meat is another man's poison
Cats hide their paws