I don’t know if it's because of the grim weather in Shanghai lately, but all the local social media has been downright dour, spreading the sinister list like ‘Why you will never find the love of your life in shanghai’. However, there are some who seem to have surmounted the Shanghai curse and found their significant others for more than just 1 month. Still, that luck is not really mushrooming, according to my updates.
Anyways, here is the scenario: Your best friend, the one who hits all the ladies' nights in town with you, suddenly finds a man who fills up 90% or more of her free time( or your best guy buddy that would always be up for checking out those girls at ladies night but one day is tamed by one of those lovely ladies. Sorry , gentlemen, but I am just sometimes writing it from a totally female perspective). My very practical advice is to find yourself a big circle of single ladies or gay friends ( or diehard bachelors – for my male readers) and don’t just hang around the lovebirds in committed relationships; otherwise you are in serious jeopardy of becoming a ….LIGHT BULB! In Chinese 电灯泡 - diàn dēng pào
Shenme ‘light bulb’?! Well, because China is a very unique country, obviously they have a totally different name for the phenomena that we laowais almost unanimously call a “third wheel.” But where is the connection to a 'LIGHT BULB'? Ok, step by step:
A light bulb is something that produces light, of course. So everything around it is bright and very visible. When a couple goes out (especially in initial, most romantic phase of infatuation), they would definitely prefer dark, intimate settings. But if a single person hangs around them, he or she is like a ‘light bulb’ spoiling the atmosphere and making everything too bright.
My further studies revealed, that this phrase actually comes from Cantonese expression 电灯胆（泡），唔（不）通气 - diàn dēng dǎn (pào) – light bulb ; wú ( Cantonese expression of agreement or surprise) bù tōng qì – and the more logical meaning is ‘ the bulb is not ventilated (the science geeks will probably understand immediately, but for the rest of us – the light bulb has a vacuum inside so that it would work, according to laws of physics, and that’s why there can’t be any fresh air coming and going inside). And the Chinese expression 不 通气 - bù tōng qì – not ventilated – refers to people who haven’t really honed their social skills and the word ‘tact’ has never been properly explained to them.
So, that’s how it looks in short – I bet after reading it you will never look at the source of light in your house in the same way ever again.
Nevertheless, summer is in full swing, and what's a better season to go out, travel, mingle, and meet new potential boyfriends and girlfriends?! But, just in case you choose to be single, next time your coupled- friends ask you to join them, better memorize the line 我不喜欢当电灯泡 - wǒ bù xǐ huan dāng diàn dēng pào – I don’t like to be a light bulb! – and be properly ‘ventilated’ around your remaining party gals!