洋为中用
yáng wéi zhōng yòng
to make foreign things serve China; adapt what is useful from abroad
Character by character
洋yáng
foreign
foreign
为wéi
by
by
中zhōng
China
China
用yòng
use
use
Example
这位厨师主张洋为中用，用法国菜的做法来做中国的家常菜。
This chef believes in making foreign ways serve Chinese cooking: he makes Chinese home dishes with French techniques.
Tone: neutral.
Usage and origin
The second half of Mao Zedong’s 1964 instruction on the arts, 古为今用，洋为中用: make the past serve the present and the foreign serve China. Now used freely of borrowing anything useful from abroad, in culture, technology or management. 为 is wéi here, the passive 为 of 为……所用 “to be used by”: foreign things used by China.
Learn this in Lesson 242 · HSK 9+: 《梁祝》小提琴协奏曲 (The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto)
A dialogue, a reading, word cards with audio and a drill that uses it, in Learn Chinese with Bao. The first lessons of every level are free.
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