Student Ed and I spent lots of our lessons in academic year 2012/2013 reading works by famous Chinese writers.
A common Chinese literary device is to ask a rhetorical question, then go on to provide the answer. Or, a statement would be made about something, to be followed by an expansion on the point.
At the beginning, Ed would get to a point (rhetorical question, or just a statement), and immediately ask, say, “But why does she want to do that?” or “What’s the reason for that?” I’d say to him, “You’ll find out if you read on.”
After a few more times of this, it became: “Wait! Move on and you’ll find out.”
After that, it got shortened to: “Wait! Move on!”
Talk about oxymoronic instructions!
(London, 2013)
