This is an aphorism from my book of aphorisms.
청보에 개똥
cheong·bo·e gae·ttong
blue-wrapping-paper-IN dog-shit
[…like] dog shit in blue wrapping paper.
This is like that wonderful English aphorism about putting lipstick on a pig – the outside doesn’t match the inside: the problem of false advertising.
What’s the solution? Transparency, transparency, transparency. I guess I’m thinking about work.
Want to hear something funny? Typically when I’m typing up these aphorisms, I will run a google search on them, just out of curiosity or to see if anything interesting comes up. I will do a web google search and an image google search.
Guess what the first image was that came up when I put this aphorism in to google? A picture of former president Lee Myung-bak (이명박) giving a speech, with the title “청보에 개똥을 쌀 놈, 이명박” (“guy who wraps dogshit in blue wrapping paper, Lee Myung-bak.”).
Caveat: 청보에 개똥
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We are enjoying your blog and these aphorisms – but this one made us curious – does blue paper have significance – would this work as well in Korea if the phrase was gold paper or green paper?
Hi Kelli,
Really I don’t know that much about it, but blue color, in general, seems to be associated with luxury and wealth and status, historically: you see it in everything from blue-colored wrapping paper and blue-colored porcelainware to the blue-tile roofs upwardly mobile farmers put on their houses and the fact that the presidential mansion here is called “The Blue House” (i.e. S. Korea’s “White House”).