bù guǎn bái māo hēi māo , zhuō zhù lǎo shǔ jiù shì hǎo māo
Traditional: 不管白貓黑貓，捉住老鼠就是好貓
不管白猫黑猫，捉住老鼠就是好猫 (bù guǎn bái māo hēi māo , zhuō zhù lǎo shǔ jiù shì hǎo māo) is a Chinese word meaning “it doesn't matter whether a cat is white or black; as long as it catches mice it's a good cat (variant of a Sichuanese saying used in a speech by Deng Xiaoping 鄧小平|邓小平[Deng4 Xiao3 ping2] in 1962, usually associated with his economic reforms starting in 1978, in which pragmatism was favored over ideological purity)”.
Meanings
- 1it doesn't matter whether a cat is white or black; as long as it catches mice it's a good cat (variant of a Sichuanese saying used in a speech by Deng Xiaoping 鄧小平|邓小平[Deng4 Xiao3 ping2] in 1962, usually associated with his economic reforms starting in 1978, in which pragmatism was favored over ideological purity)
Characters in 不管白猫黑猫，捉住老鼠就是好猫
不bù · no; not so管guǎn · to take care (of)白bái · white猫māo · cat (CL:隻|只[zhi1])黑hēi · black猫māo · cat (CL:隻|只[zhi1])捉zhuō · to clutch住zhù · to live; to reside; to stay老lǎo · prefix used before the surname of a person or a numeral indicating the order of birth of the children in a family or to indicate affection or familiarity鼠shǔ · (bound form) rat; mouse就jiù · (after a suppositional clause) in that case; then是shì · to be (followed by substantives only)好hǎo · good猫māo · cat (CL:隻|只[zhi1])