A dime a dozen?

Reader question:

Please explain “a dime a dozen” in this - Theories on the cause of the Deepwater Horizon disaster are a dime a dozen.

My comments:

This means that theories on the cause of the disaster are many and numerous. This also suggests that the theories may not all be valuable (plausible).

“A dime a dozen” is an American idiom. Dime is 10 cents. A dozen is 12 in number. The Chinese equivalent will be yi mao yi da (一毛一打). Eggs, for instance, used to cost about yi mao yi da. A long time ago to be sure, but yi mao yi da suggests that commodity prices used to be very low.

Figuratively speaking also, if something costs a dime a dozen, it’s cheap, hence the connotation that academic theories that are a dime a dozen may not be worth your while to read.

I went to the military history museum Sunday to see a calligraphy show in memory of the 1911 Revolution and while there and on the way to and fro, I observed quite a few things that you might want to term “a dime a dozen”.

First of all, the crowds are certainly a dime a dozen. They’re everywhere crowding the street, the subway and every hall of the museum, stairway, elevator and toilet. I heard one local lamenting: “Tourists are everywhere!”

Yes, tourists are a dime a dozen, too. A sign of the time, you might say, everyone is so restless (bored, too, perhaps) in their home place that they have to go elsewhere. Residents of Hangzhou, for instance, have to go visit other cities for holiday because their own beautiful city is fully occupied by folks from other places.

Anyways, in the calligraphy show I went to view, I saw a book listing more than 100 school songs, and all of them from schools from the city of Nantong, in Jiangsu Province. Nantong is a small city across the Yangtze from Shanghai. Small as it is, whenever it’s spoken in the same breath with Shanghai at any rate, Nantong is known as the cradle of modern education.

Today, school songs are few and far between, but back in the day, I have a feeling that school songs were a dime a dozen in Nantong, and I mean it in a good way. Zhan Wan, a Nantong University music teacher who collected the songs from more than 100 local schools (many of which are extinct), explained that it was all thanks to Zhang Jian, the last royal scholar (who finishes first in royal examinations) of the Qing Dynasty. “All the schools were either pioneered or inspired by Zhang Jian,” Zhan explained.

It was Zhang, born and bred in Nantong, who established many firsts in terms modern Chinese education, including setting up the first school for teachers. Among Zhang Jian quotes are: “Patriots come from intelligent pupils”, “Love your country but love your hometown first,” “A wise populace leads to strong nation.”

After Beijing, the calligraphies will go back home to be displayed at the Shen Shou Art Gallery (www.ssysg.com), one of the organizers of the show. Next time you visit Nantong, drop by the gallery where you’ll also see some of the best embroideries you’ll be able to see anywhere.

And the embroideries on display there are definitely not a dime a dozen. I have been there twice and know what I’m saying. They represent the style pioneered by Shen Shou, Zhang Jian’s contemporary, and are much unlike the embroideries of birds and cats you find, and yes, for a dime a dozen, on the flea market in Suzhou.

Anyways, let’s keep to the theme of the day, which is a dime a dozen.

What other Chinese people/things/events that are considered a dime a dozen?

Crowds, yes, as we said before.

Tourists. Yes, they too.

Cheap embroideries and many other commodities on the flea market. Yes, we’ve covered that also.

What else can you think of?

How about cadres?

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.