5 ms·

From the article "The name, by the way, translates to “millet” in English, but it is also the combination of two Chinese words that have a powerful resonance he

From the article "The name, by the way, translates to “millet” in English, but it is also the combination of two Chinese words that have a powerful resonance here: rice and rifle. As any patriotic citizen will tell you, together those words mean “revolution.” " Huh? The two characters in xiaomi (小米) are xiao3, meaning "small" and mi3 meaning "rice". In other words, millet. Rifle is qiang1.

vorg 14y ago
Soundalikes are quite important in Chinese language. Perhaps 小 sounds like another character meaning "rifle". Or perhaps, as you suggest, the reporter got it slightly wrong... 小(small) often means "half", e.g. 小时= "little two-hour-period", and 米 also means "meter". So 小米 could mean "half a meter", the length of a rifle, which could've colloquial speech in revolutionary China.
- GiraffeNecktie 14y ago
  小时 = one hour (or literally "small time period"). I searched through several dictionaries and couldn't find anything related to guns or revolutions that fit with xiaomi.
mads 14y ago
Yes, I noticed that too, the journalist must have misunderstood that. Don't see any rifle association there.
mturmon 14y ago
With reference to a near-quote from Mao Zedong (http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-5/mswv5_40.htm http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works...): "We have an expression, millet plus rifles. In the case of the United States, it is planes plus the A-bomb. However, if the United States with its planes plus the A-bomb is to launch a war of aggression against China, then China with its millet plus rifles is sure to emerge the victor." You pay for the phone, but you get the juvenile nationalist reference for free.
xiaoma 14y ago
The phrase is "小米加步枪", which comes from a Mao Zedong speech to the 8th route army and militia when fighting the Japanese in WWII. They had no real government or supplies and had to subsist off of millet and fight with single-firing rifles to overthrow their occupiers. It translates to "millet and rifles", just as the article said. It's pretty common in Chinese to use a part of a famous phrase to refer to its entirety. Actually, Baidu is another company name that does this.
- GiraffeNecktie 14y ago
  Thanks. That's a much clearer explanation.

vorg 14y ago

Soundalikes are quite important in Chinese language. Perhaps 小 sounds like another character meaning "rifle". Or perhaps, as you suggest, the reporter got it slightly wrong... 小(small) often means "half", e.g. 小时= "little two-hour-period", and 米 also means "meter". So 小米 could mean "half a meter", the length of a rifle, which could've colloquial speech in revolutionary China.

GiraffeNecktie 14y ago
小时 = one hour (or literally "small time period"). I searched through several dictionaries and couldn't find anything related to guns or revolutions that fit with xiaomi.

mads 14y ago

Yes, I noticed that too, the journalist must have misunderstood that. Don't see any rifle association there.

mturmon 14y ago

With reference to a near-quote from Mao Zedong (http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-5/mswv5_40.htm http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works...): "We have an expression, millet plus rifles. In the case of the United States, it is planes plus the A-bomb. However, if the United States with its planes plus the A-bomb is to launch a war of aggression against China, then China with its millet plus rifles is sure to emerge the victor." You pay for the phone, but you get the juvenile nationalist reference for free.

xiaoma 14y ago

The phrase is "小米加步枪", which comes from a Mao Zedong speech to the 8th route army and militia when fighting the Japanese in WWII. They had no real government or supplies and had to subsist off of millet and fight with single-firing rifles to overthrow their occupiers. It translates to "millet and rifles", just as the article said. It's pretty common in Chinese to use a part of a famous phrase to refer to its entirety. Actually, Baidu is another company name that does this.

GiraffeNecktie 14y ago
Thanks. That's a much clearer explanation.