心灵鸡汤 newish expression

[Wippen (inactive)]

I understand what this word means and its background. My question is not related to its meaning but rather I am wondering if we have an English equivalent. I am thinking something along the lines of "a gust of inspiration" or contagious xyz.

Really like this Chinese phrase.

[Lu]

Chicken soup for the soul. It's a direct translation from English, from the book series. That would be the English equivalent. Or am I misunderstanding your question?

[Wippen (inactive)]

I am familiar with the literal translation. However, I would not use that expression in English and hope to be understood. I was looking for an equivalent English phrase that conveyed the same meaning but which would be understood by English speakers without knowledge of the Chinese chicken soup cure :-)

[Geiko]

This expression comes from a series of motivational books written by two American people, so I guess English speakers will understand it. Besides, chicken soup as a soothing beverage is pretty general, isn't it? I didn't know the expression but I don't find it obscure at all.

 

Quote

(...) For years people had told our founders, motivational speakers Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, inspiring stories (...) so they compiled the best 101 stories they’d been told in a book. They called it Chicken Soup for the Soul because they wanted it to soothe and provide comfort, just like their grandmothers’ cooking.

 

Quoted from the site of the books: http://www.chickensoup.com/about/history

[Wippen (inactive)]

I am not familiar with that American version. The chicken soup as a cure has a very traditional background in China and I was looking for something to reflect that but in English. I think gust of contageous inspiration will do as a flowery equivalent.

Thanks for the above answers.

[Tomsima]

I sometimes hear people saying just 鸡汤 around here, but it seems to be in a tongue in cheek kind of way as in 'saying some feel good cliche that's just a load of crap really'. There's a guy on my wechat that constantly shares 朋友圈 about how the harder you work the luckier you get, fate, love, success etc, 类似的鸡汤

[happy_hyaena]

 

3 hours ago, Tøsen said:

I am not familiar with that American version. The chicken soup as a cure has a very traditional background in China and I was looking for something to reflect that but in English. I think gust of contageous inspiration will do as a flowery equivalent.

 

Just like in China, chicken soup is what you're generally told to consume when you're feeling under the weather to get better, so people understand what you mean when you say "chicken soup for the soul". "Gust of contageous inspiration" does not sound natural or similar at all.

[Lu]

4 hours ago, Tøsen said:

I am familiar with the literal translation.

As I understand things, it is in fact the Chinese version that is a literal translation of the English. So the English is the original. To my knowledge, it's a fairly well-known phrase, although there are probably a few subtle differences with the Chinese when it comes to exact usage and connotations.

 

What @Tomsima describes sounds like inspirational facebooks posts, with a pretty font on a romantic landscape. I haven't seen a specific English term for this, but would love to hear it if there is one. Or perhaps English can just borrow back the Chinese abbreviated expression and call it 'chicken soup'.

[Shelley]

I always associate the handing out of copious amounts of chicken soup to anyone with the sniffles or flue with a Jewish mother or grand mother who recommends it for whatever ails you. So for me it has its roots in the Jewish community mostly in New York but not only. When I lived in Montreal I remember a plastic container of Chicken soup in the fridge donate by one our Jewish neighbours.

[Shelley]

There is also this which may be where the chinese version has come from maybe? https://www.bookdepository.com/Chicken-Soup-for-the-Soul-Jackhansen-Canfield/9781623611248?redirected=true&utm_medium=Google&utm_campaign=Base1&utm_source=UK&utm_content=Chicken-Soup-for-the-Soul&selectCurrency=GBP&w=AFC7AU96SBRK1LA80RMRAFHD&pdg=kwd-104399877699:cmp-706833756:adg-39590394471:crv-162342604069:pid-9781623611248&gclid=CjwKCAiA5OrTBRBlEiwAXXhT6K9KPFv8jmBv-wNlQs1oirzaqSliDbhyV21hE8aRJ2LIyaU9aWsyRRoCis8QAvD_BwE

[ZC]

I might have a non-standard/regional understanding of the English expression, but if someone said to me “X is chicken soup for the soul” I would understand it as “X is inauthentic or intentionally misleading” not sure how the meaning evolved but it seems a like that might not be a very universal translation of the meaning of 心灵鸡汤.

[hbuchtel]

As an American cultural expression, chicken soup can be understood as a traditional cure-all, much like Epsom salts or Vick’s Vaporub. A balm of sorts. 

 

As pointed out above, the Chinese phrase is based on the title of a bestselling series of books (Chicken Soup for the Soul, Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, Pet Lover’s Soul, etc etc). 

 

I’ve actually never seen the phrase used in Chinese, but from the examples given above I would look for pre-existing English equivalents that are heartwarming and inspirational, kind of cheesy and superficial, possibly sarcastic and cynical...kind of like the results of a google search for “inspirational cat meme.”

[Shelley]

I have always understood it to be comforting thing if not actually a cure for your ills. It is not meant as inauthentic or misleading, just as soothing panacea for you, just like a cup of tea was the go to solution during WW2 for the Brits and really has been and still is. Something not good happens: Oh dear, never mind, I have made you a cup of tea. Similar with Chicken soup.

[Publius]

Call us cynics, but 心灵鸡汤 has a decidedly negative connotation in its Chinese usage. It refers to that kind of shallow, cheap, feel-good stories consumed by an unsophisticated audience. Yeah, kind of like inspirational cat memes.

[陳德聰]

43 minutes ago, Publius said:

It refers to that kind of shallow, cheap, feel-good stories consumed by an unsophisticated audience.

That’s my impression of Chicken Soup for the Soul! I think of inspirational or pseudo-intellectual quotes overlayed on pictures of galaxies and David Avocado Wolfe.

[ZC]

3 hours ago, Publius said:

It refers to that kind of shallow, cheap, feel-good stories consumed by an unsophisticated audience.

This is actually very close to my understanding of the English expression Chicken soup for the soul. I would immediately think of something like bragging online about how charitable you are. Am I alone with this English understanding, or have other people heard it used in English like something trite or fake?

[roddy]

If you want a phrase with less cultural baggage, tender loving care, often abbreviated to TLC, might do it. 

[歐博思]

4 hours ago, ZC said:

Am I alone with this English understanding, or have other people heard it used in English like something trite or fake?

 

At least for me you are alone . I've only ever seen it when I'm in a bookstore and see Chicken Soup books.

[Shelley]

Maybe chicken soup has that TLC feeling, but Chicken Soup for the Soul has degraded the meaning to the one people are mentioning.

[happy_hyaena]

11 hours ago, 陳德聰 said:

That’s my impression of Chicken Soup for the Soul! I think of inspirational or pseudo-intellectual quotes overlayed on pictures of galaxies and David Avocado Wolfe.

 

12 hours ago, Publius said:

Call us cynics, but 心灵鸡汤 has a decidedly negative connotation in its Chinese usage. It refers to that kind of shallow, cheap, feel-good stories consumed by an unsophisticated audience. Yeah, kind of like inspirational cat memes.

 

This is hilarious. It reminds me of a video my mom sent me on facebook asking for an explanation, made by some amateur Chinese videomakers who probably shot everything with their smartphones.

 

The story is about a rich CEO and a beggar with no hands. The beggar begs for money, but has the money stolen one day by some asshole. The rich CEO stops by and makes sure to give the beggar a bag of baozi. Then one day the CEO stops coming, and the beggar wondering why goes to visit his company HQ where he finds out that the CEO is in hospital because of an eye illness. Distraught, the beggar donates his own corneas, which are transplanted into the rich CEO, and making the beggar not only hand-less but also blind. The CEO wakes up in the hospital, surprised that he can see, and is told that a beggar donated their corneas. He immediately has his chauffeur drive him to the beggar, wo he sees now has cloth wrapped around his eyes. Distraught, and touched, he falls into tears and grabs the beggar, ending the video by yelling out 我会养你一辈子！

 

Is this kind of super cheesy stories what the phrase refers to in Chinese?