[DemocracyFTW2]

> Said to be a Chinese proverb

Unlikely, cf. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2021/12/29/plant-tree/

There's an old Chinese proverb for this, it goes "most of the time it's not a Chinese proverb". Ah, words of sages, the wisdom of ages.

[IKantRead]

Thank you for pointing this out! I have quite a few Chinese friends and they never cease to be entertained by the long list of "Chinese" proverbs that American's claim to know.

It turns out that since for most of Western history China was synonymous with the "mysterious far east", it become common practice to just tack on "Chinese" to the origin of any saying to let it exotic credibility.

Unsurprisingly "May you live in interesting times" is not a Chinese curse.

[throwaway290]

That's not just west. Aladdin is from "China" in original texts too.

[SimplyUnknown]

I guessed as much, but I wasn't able to confirm. Thanks for the search.