This correspondent’s dear spouse has a favourite expression; (我给你讲过了一百八十遍你知道), meaning, “I’ve told you, like, a hundred times already, you know” (in the Chinese version, the number is actually “180”, presumably because we have to get the number “8” in there somewhere). Naturally, she’s exaggerating; the truth is more like twice.
这位记者亲爱的配偶有一个最喜欢的表达方式；（我给你讲过一百八十遍你知道），意思是“我已经告诉过你一百次了，你知道的”（在中文版本中，这个数字实际上是“180”，大概是因为我们必须在某个地方得到数字“8”）。 自然，她在夸大其词；真相更像是两次。
But this tale underscores how fond the Chinese are of incorporating numerals into their every day parlance. And then creating expressions out of them.
但这个故事强调了中国人有多喜欢将数字融入他们的日常用语中。 然后用它们来创造表达方式。
Early into his presidency, this fine country’s paramount leader kicked of his anti-extravagance, anti-waste, anti-corruption effort by coining the phrase, “Three dishes and one soup”.
在他担任总统的早期，这个好国家的最高领导人通过创造“三道菜和一汤”这句话来启动他的反过度、反浪费、反腐败的努力。
It was a metaphor for frugality; the kind of proportionate lunch that Xi himself ordered that day, in a display that officials nationwide were supposed to follow. It meant no unnecessary expenses for lunch (definitely no alcohol, those days were now gone), no more accepting of bribes in the form of lavish weekend breaks and no going overboard with public spending.
这是节俭的隐喻；当天Xi本人点的那种比例的午餐，全国官员都应该效仿。 这意味着没有不必要的午餐费用（绝对没有酒精，那些日子现在已经一去不复返了），不再以奢侈的周末休息形式接受贿赂，不再过度消费公共支出。
But it was also indicative of the Middle Kingdom’s fondness for the usage of remedial math to get across governmental and societal objectives.
但这也表明了中王国喜欢使用补救性数学来实现政府和社会目标。
However, let us not forget that the Chinese are hardly alone in this regard. The English language is full of so-called-wise expressions, many of which involving birds for some reason, such as, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”, “Killing two birds with one stone”, or “Two wrongs don’t make a right”.
然而，让我们不要忘记，在这方面，中国人并不孤单。 英语充满了所谓的智慧表达，其中许多出于某种原因涉及鸟类，例如“一只鸟在手胜过灌木丛中的两只鸟”、“一石二鸟”或“两错不成正”。
Away from birds and lunches, alert readers will have noticed that China is proud of its long history of intellect, providing us with many of the inventions which still power much of our world today. Such an emphasising of intelligence is also therefore to be found in the country’s numerical metaphor. Here enter the “Thousand Talents Plan”, an HR initiative to supposedly award top achievers in their field with the kind of commendation actually intended for the industrial centres in which they are based. Essentially a chest-beating exercise therefore, the same goes for the “10 Thousand Talents Plan”.
远离鸟类和午餐，警惕的读者会注意到，中国以其悠久的智力历史而自豪，为我们提供了许多发明，这些发明仍然为当今世界提供动力。 因此，这种对智力的强调也可以在国家的数字隐喻中找到。 在这里进入“千人才计划”，这是一个人力资源计划，据说会奖励其领域的顶级成就者，以实际针对他们所在的工业中心的那种表扬。 因此，本质上是一次心跳练习，“一万人才计划”也是如此。
Then there is another, more recent fondness, for a real strangeness, that of “2+1+X”. The formula, largely intended to imply a kind of infinite wisdom by its creator, has been trotted out a few times in recent years as a means to supposedly simplify new government policy and conveniently package bureaucracy.
然后还有另一个更近的喜爱，对于一个真正的奇怪，那就是“2+1+X”。 该公式主要旨在暗示其创造者的一种无限智慧，近年来曾多次被提出来，作为简化新政府政策和方便包装官僚主义的手段。
While the real simplicity of “three dishes and one soup” is undoubtedly a more sellable concept and one which certainly gets people interested around lunchtime, there exists another numeral that packs enough punch to excite every last soul in the Middle Kingdom at any time of day.
虽然“三道菜和一汤”的真正简单无疑是一个更畅销的概念，而且肯定会在午餐时间引起人们的兴趣，但还有另一个数字，在一天中的任何时间，它都足以激发中王国的每一个灵魂。
And that magic number is “亿” (100 million).
那个神奇的数字是“亿”（1亿）。
Back to this correspondent’s dear spouse, whose favourite number is, you guessed it, folks, 100 million. She’s no fan of small-time 3 or 7; anyone who knows her will realise that’s her business acumen kicking in. She’s also far from alone.
回到这位记者亲爱的配偶，你猜对了，伙计们，他最喜欢的数字是1亿。 她不喜欢小规模的3或7；任何认识她的人都会意识到这是她的商业头脑。 她也不孤单。
For 100 million, or multiples thereof preferably, is the number that local governments in China want to hear when under pressure from Beijing to deliver on investment commitments.
1亿，或最好是其倍数，是中国地方政府在受到北京的压力下兑现投资承诺时希望听到的数字。
It also ignites the dreams of any would be entrepreneur. Little can deliver more face for a Chinese person than telling others they have secured “十个亿元” (¥1 billion) of investment for a project.
它也点燃了任何想成为企业家的梦想。 没有什么比告诉别人他们为一个项目获得了“十个亿元”（10亿日元）的投资更能给中国人带来面子了。
Yet, this is also a cautionary tale, as we return to the phenomenon of exaggeration. This publication has direct experience of local authorities vastly inflating numbers provided to them by The Nanjinger, numbers which accurately reflected the qualitative findings of research undertaken thereby.
然而，当我们回到夸大其词的现象时，这也是一个警示故事。 该出版物具有地方当局大幅夸大《南京报》提供给他们的数字的直接经验，这些数字准确地反映了由此进行的研究的定性结果。
That ¥1 billion? It might only be half that. It may even not actually exist. For this is how the Chinese play the numbers game. And more and more it looks like a game of Chinese whispers.
那10亿日元？ 可能只有一半。 它甚至可能实际上不存在。 因为这就是中国人玩数字游戏的方式。 它看起来越来越像一场中国窃窃私语的游戏。