Deng Xiaoping – One of the greatest prophets in the 20^th century

Q: When did China establish diplomatic relations with the United States?

A: On January 1, 1979.

That was the biggest breakthrough. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and the United States, the exchanges and mutual understanding between our two peoples have broadened and deepened steadily. However, this is not enough. The Chinese government decided to send a top delegation to the States headed by Deng Xiaoping. When the Chinese delegation arrived, Mr. Deng and his attendants stayed at one of the elegant hotels. Mr. Deng used to get up a little earlier and would like to have a walk on his own. He walked out of the hotel into the street without waiting for anyone else. He was enjoying the fresh air in the morning when some journalists caught sight of him. Soon Mr. Deng was surrounded by more journalists and pedestrians. They all wanted to see the giant in the east with their own eyes and would like to communicate with him. One of the courageous journalists came up to him and tried asking him the first question. It’s well known that Mr. Deng had been to France to work his way through college and that he could understand a little French. How could he answer their questions since he knew little English?

Let’s wait and see.

The first question was “What’s the name of the first president of the States?” Did he know the answer? Surely, he did if the journalist asked him in Chinese. Mr. Deng thought for a while. In China, strangers would like to know each other’s surname first. “Nin guixing (What’s your surname)?”, that’s the common question. He guessed the Americans would think the same way. So he told them “Wo Xing Deng (My surname is Deng)”. The crowd cheered up. Why? Because he spoke with a strong Sichuan dialect. “Woxingdeng” sounds much like Washington, which happened to be the right answer to the first question.

A second question came up. “What are you going to do this afternoon, Mr. Deng?” He thought the American journalist would like to know his name. Xiaoping was his answer to the second question. In Sichuan dialect Xiaoping sounds much like Shopping. All the journalists and pedestrians showed great respect to him. The Chinese people are intellectual and know what life means to them.

Then one of the braver journalists came up with a third question. “Who will be the next president of Taiwan after Chiang Ching-kuo?” At the moment, Mr. Deng became a little impatient, saying “ni denghui (wait a moment or a moment later)” without any thought or preparation. Try to describe how Mr. Deng felt. Yes, he was waiting for his interpreter and his attendants. Ni denghui sounds much like Lee Teng-hui (Li Denghui). It happened to be the correct answer to the third question! What would Mr. Deng have said if he had known what the question really meant? He would have refused to answer this question! Up till now, he had actually answered none of the questions right.

Who will be Lee’s successor? A fourth question came up. Mr. Deng got a little more impatient, uttering “suibian (as you wish)”. In Sichuan dialect, suibian sounds like shuibian. It turned out that Chen Shuibian became Lee’s successor. The journalists became more and more excited. They had more questions to ask.

The fifth and last question was “In what field can China cooperate with the United States?” “TMD (his mother’s)” was his answer. When Chinese say “his mother’s”, they are usually very angry. TMD (ta ma de) are impolite Chinese characters, but it happened to be the answer to the fifth and last question. (TMD is the abbreviation of Theater Missile Defense战区导弹防御计划).

One of the old-time journalists exclaimed that Mr. Deng was one of the greatest prophets in the 20^th century when he was told that Mr. Deng passed away in 1997.