幸災樂禍
xìng zāi lè huò
“rejoice disaster happy disaster”
Another obvious one: to rejoice and be happy about disaster.
The (commonly but not exclusively) four-character format of Chinese sayings means that there’s no room to specify whose disaster it is one is rejoicing in. As usual with the Chinese language, there's a lot of logical deduction expected (what I call the “You know what I mean” element). This is why I keep telling my students: “You won’t get Alzheimer’s learning Chinese.”
Only the German language, as far as I know, has an equivalent for it: Schadenfreude.
Now, what does that say about the two cultures if they have a word/saying for taking joy in other people’s suffering, I ask you?
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