A Useful Chengyu - Hébù Shí Ròumí 何不食肉糜

A Useful Chengyu - Hébù Shí Ròumí 何不食肉糜

From The China History Podcast by Laszlo Montgomery

November 9, 2025 · 13 min

About this episode

This episode explores the Chinese saying 何不食肉糜 and its historical context, drawing parallels to Marie Antoinette's famous phrase.

This morning, in between recording sessions, I checked out what was headlining on Drudge. And right there was the leading story, "Let Them Eat Steak." You can imagine what the piece was about. This made me think, what a perfect time to post this Chinese Saying podcast episode. I released this one on Patreon and CHP Premium a while back. It's more or less the Chinese version of this Drudge headline. I know, I know, a lot of you, because you don't speak Chinese, despite how you feel about me, never give this Chinese Sayings Podcast a chance. The thing about these "chengyu" Chinese idioms or proverbs, whether you remember them or not, is that they all have interesting and amusing stories that are all rooted in ancient or classical Chinese history. It's true that if you are a Mandarin speaker, you might appreciate these idioms more. But give it a chance and see if you like it. This one here, 何不食肉糜 Hébù Shí Ròumí, is regretfully a Chinese Saying that never goes out of style. This one is kind of China's version of Marie Antoinette's famous words never spoken, "Let them eat cake." This is a good one from the late 2nd to early 3rd century. And you can still use it in 2025. And being a…

People in this episode

Host: Laszlo Montgomery

Topics covered

  • Chinese idioms
  • history
  • culture
  • proverbs
  • society

Keywords

  • chengyu
  • Chinese sayings
  • idioms
  • history
  • culture
  • Marie Antoinette
  • proverbs

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Hébù Shí Ròumí 何不食肉糜

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