Commentary

Jan 2, 2000

In popular motivational business culture, the saying goes that there's a word in Chinese that has a double meaning, representing the concepts of "danger" and "opportunity" all in one. The word is "weiji." A closer analysis reveals that "weiji" is a compound word of which the first part, "wei," can indeed mean "danger," while the second one, "ji," can mean any number of things depending on what it is paired with. The possibilities range from "airplane" to "chance." Some language scholars suggest that its pairing with "wei" turns the meaning of...