China’s Youth Are Quitting the Rat Race to ‘Let It Rot’
wsj.com
Young people in China are becoming more rebellious, questioning their nation’s traditional expectations of career and family
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Young people in China are becoming more rebellious, questioning their nation’s traditional expectations of career and family
Would "just throw the whole thing away" (as in throw it into the trash) be a more fitting translation for the sentiment than "let it rot" then?
Not exactly, 摆烂 is more mischievous noncompliance (like we typically think of a lazy cat), than confrontational sabotage.
But "throw it all away" certainly conveys the message well enough. It is quite common to have word in one language that dont have a exact match in another language. Even in European languages, let along between Chinese and English, which are widely different.
Interesting! Thank you for the insight, I've always loved the topic of direct translation vs contextual translation ever since I dove into it in a Contemporary Japanese Literature course in college