Whatever you do as a Chinese, keep a poker face (喜怒不形于色). Because it’s not about experiencing emotions. It’s about not expressing them.
作为中国人，无论你做什么，都要保持扑克脸（喜怒不形于色）。 因为这不是关于体验情绪。 这是关于不表达它们。
But in a society which glorifies non-verbal implications, there should be no need to express any emotion anyway.
但在一个美化非语言含义的社会中，无论如何都没有必要表达任何情绪。
In the Middle Kingdom, the most important things in life are usually implied, such as a parent’s love for their child. In a traditional family, very rarely is this directly communicated, for there be not the need.
在中王国，生活中最重要的事情通常被暗示着，比如父母对孩子的爱。 在传统家庭中，这很少直接沟通，因为没有必要。
Taking the concept to to a more or less natural conclusion, expressing too much emotion in China can be considered insincere or a sign of weakness.
将这个概念带到一个或多或少自然的结论，在中国表达过多的情绪可以被认为是不真诚或软弱的表现。
Hence, the majority of children in China are on a hiding to nothing if considering showing any emotion. From a young age, the regime is established. Drilled into them is the ethos to fall in line. And that means remembering all their school lessons and hours of homework. Never should they question authority. Orders are to be followed without query, while thoughts are prescribed by their parents, grandparents and teachers.
因此，如果考虑表现出任何情绪，中国的大多数儿童都会一无所获。 从很小的时候起，这个政权就建立起来了。 深入到他们身上的是符合一致的精神。 这意味着要记住他们所有的学校课程和几个小时的家庭作业。 他们永远不应该质疑权威。 命令是不加询问地遵循的，而思想则由父母、祖父母和老师规定。
It’s what Confucianism is all about; the greater good.
这就是儒家思想的全部内容；更大的利益。
Chun Liu notes this well in the paper, “Chinese, Why Don’t You Show Your Anger? — A Comparative Study between Chinese and Americans in Expressing Anger” (2014). “When in conflict in personal communication, Chinese tend to sacrifice their own interests in order to satisfy the well-being of others. Consequently, they tend to restrain their anger”, Chun writes.
Chun Liu在论文《中国人，你为什么不表现出你的愤怒？——中美表达愤怒的比较研究》（2014年）中很好地指出了这一点。 “当在个人交流中发生冲突时，中国人往往会为了满足他人的福祉而牺牲自己的利益。 因此，他们倾向于克制自己的愤怒，”Chun写道。
But bottling it all up inside chips away at the façade. Eventually though, it will be time for lift off.
但把它全部装在瓶子里，放在外墙的碎片里。 不过，最终，是时候起飞了。
Benoit married his Chinese girlfriend here in Nanjing back in 2009 and recently related to The Nanjinger one of his first experiences encountering extreme displays of emotion by the Chinese.
Benoit于2009年在南京与他的中国女友结婚，最近与《南京人》有关，这是他第一次遇到中国人极端情感展示的经历之一。
It was after he came back home one afternoon and had reason to sit on his mother in law’s bed.
那是在一天下午他回到家，有理由坐在他婆婆的床上之后。
She erupted.
她爆发了。
And then stripped the entire bed and changed anew every last piece of material and anything stuffed thereon.
然后剥掉了整张床，重新更换了每一块材料和塞在上面的东西。
Being the sensitive foreigner, Benoit was quite upset that he had, in one foul swoop, been defined by his dirtiness.
作为一个敏感的外国人，Benoit非常难过，因为他在一次犯规中就被他的肮脏所定义了。
But such rapid enragement is in fact pretty common in a society supposedly underpinned by harmony.
但事实上，在一个被认为以和谐为支撑的社会中，这种快速的愤怒是很常见的。
How many times have you seen a Chinese parent become angry with their child? On the street or the shopping mall escalator, all it takes is the minor misdemeanour of a child to turn parental care into a bad day with the Sergeant Major.
你见过多少次中国父母对孩子生气？ 在街上或商场的自动扶梯上，只需要一个孩子的轻微轻罪，就能把父母的照顾变成与军士长在一起的糟糕一天。
Then there are the major battles fought for parking spots. In western countries, we would just say, “Damn, she got the last space”. In China, there have been numerous reports of such situations resulting in fisticuffs, even here in our own Nanjing.
然后是争夺停车位的主要战斗。 在西方国家，我们只会说：“该死，她得到了最后一个空间”。 在中国，有大量关于此类情况导致裂端的报道，即使在我们自己的南京这里也是如此。
So that’s dealt with anger (and obviously there’s hoards of it). What about public displays of sorrow and grief in China?
所以这是用愤怒来处理的（而且显然有很多愤怒）。 在中国，公开展示悲伤和悲痛呢？
These were witnessed in an arresting fashion in 2014, in the wake of the disappearance of flight MH370. With fully two thirds of its passengers Chinese and destination Beijing Capital Airport, as the news hit waiting families and friends, there was a hitherto unseen outpouring of grief. Hitherto in so far as it was broadcast on television worldwide.
2014年，在MH370航班失踪后，以引人注目的方式目睹了这些。 三分之二的乘客是中国人，目的地是北京首都机场，当消息传到等待的家人和朋友时，出现了一种未见的悲伤。 到目前为止，它在全球电视上播出。
The poker face was off.
扑克脸不对。
But the other end of the emotional spectrum lies happiness. Plenty of that too in China.
但情感光谱的另一端是幸福。 在中国也有很多。
Witness the average teenage girl’s overwhelming joy at her favourite band’s concert in Nanjing’s Olympic Stadium, and any garden variety office in China that sees its fair share of daily giggles among colleagues sharing jokes, observations on life and the hottest social media posts from the previous evening.
目睹普通少女在南京奥林匹克体育场她最喜欢的乐队的音乐会上压倒性的喜悦，以及中国任何花园综艺办公室，同事分享笑话、生活观察和前一天晚上最热门的社交媒体帖子，每天都有相当大的笑声。
Then there are the foreigners visiting China who will invariably mention how local people are “so friendly”!
然后是访问中国的外国人，他们总是会提到当地人是多么“友好”！
Come to think of it, there are generally more smiles to be found in China than on the dour faces of Europe. Especially these days.
仔细想想，在中国，通常比欧洲的面孔上更多的微笑。 尤其是这些天。
With all these salient points as examples, emotion would appear to be an attribute worn quite proudly by many a Chinese.
以所有这些突出点为例，情感似乎是许多中国人非常自豪地佩戴的属性。
But all this “toing and froing” stops us from asking the fundamental question.
但所有这些“来来去去”都阻止了我们提出根本性的问题。
Why the contradictions?
为什么有矛盾？
It boils down to uncertainty avoidance; our degree of tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity.
它归结为避免不确定性；我们对不确定性和模棱两可的容忍程度。
In a high-uncertainty culture, such as the USA, citizens are not good at dealing with ambiguity and unpredictability. In all their communication, they seek clarity and accuracy, exactly what the Chinese language was designed to avoid.
在像美国这样高度不确定性的文化中，公民不擅长处理模棱两可和不可预测性。 在所有的交流中，他们寻求清晰和准确，这正是汉语所要避免的。
“When they [Americans] are angry, they are unlikely to pretend to be happy. There should be a clear distinction between liking and disliking”, writes Chun. “However, members of relatively, low-uncertainty-avoiding societies, such as China, are more comfortable with ambiguity, chaos and less resistant to unknown situations.”
“当他们[美国人]生气时，他们不太可能假装快乐。 喜欢和不喜欢之间应该有明确的区别，”Chun写道。 「然而，像中國這樣相對、避免不確定性較低的社會的成員，對模稜兩可、混亂更舒服，對未知情況的抵抗力較差。」
Going forward, the lid of the emotional China pressure cooker may well remain on for now, but external influences will continue to constantly fiddle with its settings, seeking to elicit as much reaction as possible, a bit like that petulant child who earlier received the dressing down from their enlisted mother.
展望未来，情绪化的中国高压锅的盖子可能会暂时保持不变，但外部影响将继续不断摆弄其设置，寻求引起尽可能多的反应，有点像那个脾气暴躁的孩子，他早些时候从入伍的母亲那里得到了衣服。
