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| As a kid, I spoke English to my Chinese immigrant parents, who replied to me and my siblings mostly in kind. My grandmother, who lived with us, was different. She could communicate to us only in Mandarin; what we couldn’t understand in words, we’d figure out through pantomime. A few phrases in Mandarin are particularly vivid to me — the ones my parents used when they grumbled about something: hulihutu, or “muddle-headed”; fa feng, or “to go crazy”; and most striking of all, mamahuhu, which means “so-so” or “mediocre” (and also “careless”). | 小时候，我和我的中国移民父母说英语，他们也用英语回答我和兄弟姐妹们。和我们住在一起的祖母则不同。她只能用普通话和我们交流；对于我们无法理解的语言，我们就靠手势来理解。我觉得普通话里有几个词特别生动——我父母抱怨的时候总会说“糊里糊涂”，这是“糊涂”的意思；“发疯”是“疯狂”的意思；最有趣的是“马马虎虎”，意思是“一般”、“平庸”（也有“粗心”的意思）。 |
| In Mandarin, ma means horse and hu means tiger; the idiom mamahuhu literally translates, then, as “horse horse tiger tiger.” In one of the fables that explains its origins, a slapdash artist paints a tiger’s head but changes his mind midway and completes the creature with a horse’s body. (Etymologically, it most likely began as a colloquialism borrowed from Manchu culture during the Qing dynasty.) According to Chairman Mao’s personal physician, in 1956 the revered leader met an elderly woman living in a dilapidated shack on an island in the Xiang River. When he asked about her quality of life, instead of proclaiming that the revolution had liberated her, she defiantly muttered, “Mamahuhu.” She hadn’t experienced the prosperity that Mao promised. | 在普通话里，这个词字面的意思就是马、马、老虎、老虎。有一个寓言解释了它的起源：一个草率的艺术家画了一个老虎的头，但中途改变主意，用马的身体完成了这个生物。（从词源学上讲，它很可能起源于清朝时期从满族文化中借用的口语。）据毛主席的私人医生回忆，1956年，这位受人尊敬的领导人接见了一位住在湘江一个小岛上破旧棚屋里的老妇人，问她生活质量如何，她没有宣称在革命中得到了解放，而是轻蔑地嘀咕着：“马马虎虎。”她没有感受到毛泽东承诺的繁荣。 |
| Mamahuhu became a family in-joke for me and my siblings. At first we found the concept funny — and the sound of it, too. Sometimes my brother and I chanted the string of vowels, hooting the “hu” like owls — bewildering our parents — before dissolving into laughter. But as we grew older, we realized mamahuhu also described our family. | “马马虎虎”成了我和兄弟姐妹们之间的笑话。起初，我们觉得这个词很有意思——它的声音也很有意思。有时，我和兄弟念出这一串声音，像猫头鹰一样叫着“虎”，然后大笑起来，父母都被我们搞糊涂了。但随着年龄的增长，我们意识到，“马马虎虎”也可以描述我们的家庭。 |
| My parents and my grandmother could be precise when it mattered — say, when my father, a structural engineer, conducted a total stress-test analysis of the Sears Tower, as it was known then. But they handled much else inexactly, with varying degrees of success. My grandmother could pleat pork dumplings with grace and speed. But when she packed my lunchbox, she stacked an inch of processed meat between white bread with no condiments, in imitation of the American sandwiches she rarely ate. My mother is a retired plant physiologist whose research led to multiple patents related to improving plant growth and food safety. But when she helped me on an elementary-school project, she scooped out steamed rice to use as an adhesive, instead of buying a glue stick. My tinfoil crown fell apart in class. | 我的父母和祖母在重要的时候都能做到精确——比如，我的父亲是一名结构工程师，主持了当时被称为西尔斯大厦的建筑的全面压力测试分析。但他们在处理其他很多事情时一点也不准确，成功的程度也不尽相同。我祖母能娴熟地做猪肉馅饺子。但是给我装午餐盒的时候，她模仿她很少吃的美国三明治，把一英寸厚（约合2.5厘米）的加工肉夹在的白面包之间，不放调料。我的母亲是一位已退休的植物生理学家，她的研究带来了多项与改善植物生长和食品安全有关的专利。但当她帮我做小学作业时，她没有买胶棒，而是舀了点蒸熟的米饭当粘合剂。结果我的锡纸皇冠在课堂上散架了。 |
| Neither my grandmother nor my mother had been schooled in American norms; they had to fake it to make it. When I was a child, the mamahuhu attitude sometimes embarrassed me. But it also taught me not to get hung up on mainstream ideals of perfection — and to embrace originality instead. That old woman who told the truth to Mao didn’t seek his approval by telling him what everyone else did — and among her neighbors, only she remained sharp in the memories of his physician. My elders, too, forged their own path in a country that could be hostile to, or dismissive of, Asian immigrants. | 我的祖母和母亲都没有接受过美国规范的教育；她们必须弄假直到成真。小时候，这种“马马虎虎”的态度有时让我很尴尬。但它也教会我不要执着于主流的完美理想，而是要接受独创性。那个把真相告诉毛泽东的老妇人并没有为了得到他的认可，就对他说和其他人一样的话——在所有邻居中，那位私人医生只清楚地记住了她。我的长辈们也是如此，他们在一个可能敌视或轻视亚裔移民的国家里开辟了自己的道路。 |
| Out of a sense of pride, my siblings and I transformed mamahuhu from an adjective into an ethos. It’s the name we gave my mother’s car, and it’s the philosophy behind my brother’s repairs around the house or on vehicles: “So-so, good enough,” he told me. “Because a lot of the time, that’s all that’s needed.” | 出于一种自豪感，我和兄弟姐妹们把“马马虎虎”从一个形容词变成了一种精神气质。我们用它给母亲的车命名，也是我的兄弟修理房子或汽车背后的哲学：“一般般，足够好了，”他告诉我。“因为很多时候，这就是所需要的一切。” |
| Growing up, I talked about mamahuhu only at home. But lately, as elements of Chinese culture have spread throughout the world, I realize my family isn’t alone in our affection for the term: A Michelin-starred chef playfully borrowed the expression for his restaurant in San Francisco, as did sketch comedians in Shanghai who specialized in viral videos, with their own line of mamahuhu-logoed apparel, throw pillows and face masks. A Paris restaurant group chose the name to break free from the “conventional codes” of Asian food and embrace their “quirky side.” Various accounts on TikTok, Twitter and Instagram use the word in their names; it’s also an entry in the Urban Dictionary. | 在成长的过程中，我只在家里谈论“马马虎虎”。但最近，随着中国文化元素在世界范围内传播，我意识到我的家人并不是唯一一个喜欢这个词的人：一位米其林星级厨师打趣地借用了这个表达给他在旧金山的餐厅起名；几位擅长出品爆款视频的上海脱口秀演员拥有自己的带有“马马虎虎”标志的服装、抱枕和口罩。一家巴黎餐厅集团选择这个名字是为了摆脱亚洲食品的“传统规则”，接纳他们“古灵精怪的一面”。TikTok、Twitter和Instagram上的各种帐号在其名称中都使用了这个词；它也成为市井词典(Urban Dictionary)中的一个条目。 |
| My sons — who are of Chinese, Serbian and Northern European descent — don’t speak Mandarin, but they find the mamahuhu fable darkly hilarious. “That’s probably how I would have drawn the picture, too,” one said. It’s our family’s practice to make do, and as the pandemic set in — no in-person school, no travel possible — the philosophy helped us survive. I hiked with my twins in the hills, doling out Starbursts or Skittles every half-mile — history, science and recess, all in one — at times inspired, at times mamahuhu, with its power, possibility and irreverence. | 我的儿子——他们有中国、塞尔维亚和北欧血统——不会说普通话，但他们觉得“马马虎虎”的寓言带有黑色幽默。其中一位说：“我可能也会这样画画。”凑合是我们家庭的习惯，随着大流行的到来——不能面对面上课，不可能旅行——这种哲学帮助我们生存了下来。我和我的双胞胎孩子在山上徒步旅行，每隔半英里分吃一次水果软糖或彩虹糖——历史、科学和课间休息合为一体——有时灵感爆发，有时“马马虎虎”，它带来力量、可能性和不正经。 |
| With this cleareyed worldview, my 10-year-olds don’t rely on tradition or precedence as their only guide. They understand that best-laid plans are no guarantee of safety or happiness. It’s a lesson — one of mamahuhu’s many — that I want to impress upon them most of all. Last summer our family considered visiting Hawaii, and again for spring break earlier this year, but we’ve repeatedly postponed the vacation because of the pandemic. In the end, we settled for a road trip to Southern California to see their grandparents and baby cousin. As the blankness of the interstate scrolled by, I asked the boys if they were excited. | 有了这种清晰的世界观，我10岁的孩子就不再依赖传统或优先权作为他们的唯一准则。他们明白，最好的计划并不能保证安全或幸福。这是我最想给他们留下深刻印象的一个道理，是“马马虎虎”带来的众多道理之一。去年夏天，我们全家考虑过去夏威夷，今年早些时候又考虑春假过去，但由于大流行，我们一再推迟假期。最后，我们决定去南加州看望他们的祖父母和小表弟。当我们驶过空旷的州际公路时，我问男孩们兴不兴奋。 |
| “This trip is mamahuhu,” one joked. Everyone laughed. A manifesto for the next generation, too. | “这次旅行‘马马虎虎’，”其中一个开玩笑说。每个人都笑了。这也成了下一代人的宣言。 |
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