"Old friend" is a common phrase China’s communist party uses as a tribute to foreigners considered helpful to their interests. It’s also an expression of nostalgia for longtime companions or acquaintances.
Is this real or did they just made it up to make China sound more mysterious and different lol
The "Old friend" shit is just you standard sinophobic "The Chinese are sneaky and just pretending to be friendly" bs
Yeah no idk what the hell they're doing with this article. 老外 (lǎowài in pinyin) literally translates to "old foreign" and is sort of said with the tone and intention of calling someone an "ol' buddy." It's a good-humored thing but isn't used formally by the press or government as it's seen as unprofessional and possibly misinterpreted for exactly this reason. Media crackers being disingenuous as always.
老外 here isn't the correct backtranslation I think, it's more mundane i.e. 老朋友 (lao pengyou lit, old friend). The 老 is affectionate, as you say. This would be the same lao pengyou they use for, for e.g. * spits * Kissinger.
Edit: read the article and yeah in that context it literally would just be 'old friend' 老朋友 with all the familiar, friendly connotations and usage it has in English. Wouldn't expect any less from VOA.
Ahh, gotcha. I am only at the beginning of my language learning journey, thanks for the correction!
Pretty rich coming from people who use the word "aliens" to describe foreigners
Westoids: "The Chinese are deceptive and inscrutable and you can't take them at their word."
Also Westoids: "Of course I said the exact opposite of what I actually meant. Don't you understand sarcasm?!"
You should actually look into the origins of the term. It’s been used diplomatically for decades.
afaik the term is used for any long time/old business partners you're on friendly terms with. always used in a very comradely and genuinely thankful demeanor
It's also a phrase/concept that exists in every language that has ever been. Ever. In all history.
Thomas and Eleanor Dvorchak played host to Xi. He slept in the Star Trek-themed bedroom belonging to the Dvorchaks' son, Gary, who was away at university.
Mr Aldo’s house has an entire room decorated with Minions merchandise, generated widespread mockery on social media from left-leaning US commenters, with many wondering if the former president [Jair Bolsonaro] had been sleeping in a bed adorned with the strange yellow cartoon characters.
Holy shit, Xi went to sleep in a Star Trek room for an entire period of his life.
He has to have been affected by this
I think Iowa is a friendship state with China? Something like that, one of those weird local things like sister cities
States/provinces within a federation usually have sister relationships with equivalent gubernatorial bodies, so for example Iowa is sister states with Hebei province while Des Moines is sister cities with Hebei's Shijiazhuang.
(Sister citites don't always have to be from the sister state, though in this case they align)
Xi came out to the USA on an agricultural delegation from Hebei.
