占了些偏爱 才从地上站起来
“won a little favor, and only then stood back up.”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
耍些聪明伎俩
“played a few clever tricks,”
占了些偏爱 才从地上 站起来
“won a little favor, and only then stood back up.”
婉顺是另一个我
“Wanshun was another me.”
“I know how fragile my standing is; I survived purely by luck and favoritism.”
In hierarchical societies, rising above adversity often requires relying on the protection and bias of powerful patrons rather than sheer merit alone.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
to stand up / to gain dignity and power
Literally means to stand, but metaphorically refers to overcoming oppression or low status.
benefited from / took advantage of
Commonly used in spoken Chinese to indicate gaining an advantage from external circumstances.
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“but you pretend to be very virtuous.”
“Luckily, we came across the mistake today.”
“for a long time.”
“so I might as well get something out of it. That way, it's not a total loss.”
“You flatter us, my lord.”
“I was biased. You changed your tune quite fast.”