"A drop in the ocean" — Phrase of the Week
Xiaomi hits pre-sales targets of its first EV model within minutes, but the revenue is insignificant compared to the investment.
Our phrase of the week is: "a drop in the ocean" (九牛一毛 jiǔ niú yì máo).
Context
Hong Kong shares of Xiaomi, a Chinese mobile phone and electronics maker, surged by as much as 16% following the launch of its first electric vehicle.
At a launch event held in its Beijing factory on March 28, Xiaomi founder, Léi Jūn 雷军, revealed the new SU7, a sporty four-door sedan.
The price of the SU7 was decided at the very last minute. The base model of the first batch of 5,000 “Founder’s Edition” (创始版) models was set at 215,900 yuan (around $33,000 USD). That's intentionally 30,000 yuan ($4,000 USD) cheaper than the price of a Tesla Model 3 in China.
The SU7 is a culmination of three years of hard work.
Lei Jun announced his plans in March 2021:
I'll bet my entire reputation and achievements on the car manufacturing business.
将为造车业务赌上所有声誉和战绩。
jiāng wèi zàochē yèwù dǔshàng suǒyǒu shēngyù hé zhànjì.
$10 billion US dollars was set aside for the project.
During the Beijing launch, pre-orders surpassed ten thousand within the first four minutes. 27 minutes later, the pre-orders surpassed fifty thousand, generating over 300 million yuan ($47 million USD) in revenue.
But, there is still a long way to go for Xiaomi, as one media commentator points out:
However, compared to Lei Jun's planned investment of 10 billion US dollars in car manufacturing, this amount is merely a drop in the ocean.
但这与雷军准备的100亿美元对造车的投入相比,实属九牛一毛。
Dàn zhèyǔ léijūn zhǔnbèi de 100 yì měiyuán duì zàochē de tóurù xiàng bǐ, shíshǔ jiǔniú yìmáo
And with that we have our Sinica Phrase of the Week.
What it means
"A drop in the ocean" directly translates as "nine cows" (九牛 jiǔniú), "one hair" (一毛 yìmáo).
It's a metaphor which means "as inconsequential as one hair among nine cows."
This four-character idiom originates from the time of Emperor Wu (汉武帝 Hàn Wǔ Dì), who reigned from 141 to 87 BC during the Western Han dynasty.
In the summer of 99 BC, the emperor's military general, Lǐ Líng 李陵, led 5,000 troops into battle with the Xiongnu (匈奴 xiōngnú), also known as the Huns. Li was defeated by the much larger Xiongnu army, and forced to surrender.
Emperor Wu, assuming Li would fight until he died in battle, was furious at the defeat and subsequent surrender.
He asked his court historian, Sīmǎ Qiān 司马迁, for an opinion on the failure of his general.
Trying to defend Li Ling, Sima Qian noted that with only five thousand soldiers, more than ten thousand of the enemy’s men had been killed. Li Ning was a worthy general and loyal.
The emperor and his ministers believed Sima Qian was being disloyal, so arrested him.
Given the choice of the death sentence or torture, the historian considered ending his own life. But he knew it would render his life’s work meaningless since he had not finished it.
In “A Letter to Vice Minister Ren” (报任少卿书 bào rèn shàoqīng shū), Sima Qian wrote:
If, suppose, I were to suffer the punishment of death, I would be as inconsequential as the loss of a single hair among nine cows. How would my life differ from that of an ant?
假令仆伏法受诛,若九牛亡一毛,与蝼蚁何以异?
Jiǎ lìng pú fúfǎ shòuzhū, ruò jiǔniú wáng yìmáo, yǔ lóuyǐ héyǐ yì?
So Sima Qian endured the torture and humiliation, and survived. He went on to complete one of the most important works in Chinese literary history, Records of the Grand Historian (史记 shǐjì).
In modern Chinese, “one hair of nine cows” means “insignificant” or “miniscule”.
In the context of the first pre-sales orders of Xiaomi’s SU7, the revenue is a “drop in the ocean” compared to the $100 billion invested in the project.
Lei Jun and Xiaomi will have to endure a long and painful journey before the SU7 turns a profit.
Andrew Methven is the author of RealTime Mandarin, a resource to helping you learn contemporary Chinese in context, maintain and improve your Mandarin skills, and stay on top of the latest language trends in China.
Read more about how this story is being discussed in the Chinese media in this week’s RealTime Mandarin.