你干什么对他卑躬屈膝
“Why are you bowing and scraping to him?”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
还请殿下饶了我们这一次 之后肯定不会再犯
“Please, Your Highness, spare us this one time. It will never happen again.”
你干什么 对他 卑躬屈膝
“Why are you bowing and scraping to him?”
管你什么黎王
“So what if you're Prince Li?”
“Stand up straight! Stop humiliating yourself by begging this so-called prince!”
In Chinese historical drama, having backbone ('guqi') is praised when confronting corrupt or tyrannical royalty, contrasting sharply with pragmatic self-preservation through groveling.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
to bow and scrape; to grovel servilely
A common four-character idiom (chengyu) used critically to describe someone acting overly subservient or cowardly.
why; what are you doing
Often used rhetorically in spoken Chinese to express annoyance, bewilderment, or reprimand.
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“I had to grovel all day long”
“so you can watch me grovel over him,”
“Why do you have to face him?”
“That despicable man.”
“Why are you so good to me?”
“Are you crazy?”