Fitting shoe

合鞋 (hé xié) fitting shoe

“Follow my watch swinging back and forth. Soon you will be able to put on this shoe.” (Rebel Pepper)

“Fitting shoe” (合鞋 hé xié), yet another homonym for “harmonious” (和谐 héxié), has its roots in a speech delivered by President Xi Jinping that met much netizen ridicule.

While on his first trip abroad as China’s president, Xi Jinping delivered a speech at Moscow State Institute of International Relations on March 23, 2013. In his speech [zh] (transcript) [zh], Xi called for cooperation between Russia and China, emphasizing the two nations’ shared interests in peace and stability. Xi also countered international criticism of other nations’ developmental paths:

“Only the wearer of a shoe will know whether or not that shoe fits his foot.” Whether the path a country takes towards development is suitable or not, only the people of that country have the right to decide.

“鞋子合不合脚，自己穿了才知道”。一个国家的发展道路合不合适，只有这个国家的人民才最有发言权。

Netizens quickly took Xi to task for his words, drawing attention to the fact that they had little say in their country’s path towards development:

@叶海波 (Tencent Weibo): If a country’s people lack freedom of speech, is speaking of shoes fitting their feet not a bit extravagant?

一国人民连说话都缺乏自由，谈鞋子合脚是不是过于奢侈了。

@梧桐老廖: You let your family wear comfortable shoes, while compelling ours to wear worn-out shoes of the wrong size.

你让你的家属在那边穿合脚舒适的好鞋子，却强迫我们穿不合脚的破鞋。

@窈窕老淑女: You want try a new pair of shoes to see if they fit? Anyway, everyone’s current shoes are chafing their feet.

想穿一下新鞋试一试？看看合不合脚？反正全国人民觉得现在的鞋子很咯脚。

Blogger Wuyue Sanren posted the following soon-to-be deleted comment to Sina Weibo:

@五岳散人: My take on the shoe-and-foot question: Whoever buys the shoes has the last word. The common people pay taxes, so they have the right to say whether or not the shoe fits, as well as the style they want. A well-chosen pair of shoes also comes with a warranty and the privilege to exchange or return the items. The shoes themselves don’t have the qualifications to say whether they fit or not. Shoes that do aren’t shoes, they’re shackles.

关于鞋与脚的问题我是这么想的：谁花钱买鞋谁说了算，老百姓纳税了，有权表达鞋是不是合脚，以及鞋子的款式。选好了鞋子还要有三包服务，也要有退换货的权利。鞋子本身没有说自己是不是合脚的资格，有这个资格的不是鞋子，往往都是脚镣

See also river crab.

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