[arrobbiato]

Similarly, I’ve had to privately advise coworkers not to use the term “let a thousand flowers bloom” as an idiom meaning “let’s get ideas from lots of people.” It sounds great until you understand the horrible historical context in which it was originally said.

[someothherguyy]

I think things like this are a type of resource exhaustion attack on society. No one can be aware of all things potentially offensive to someone else. Its the hyperaware judges excluding mens rea from the equation before deciding guilt. What is the harm done to someone who might find this offensive? Why spend your time lifting the veil and shaming those around you who have no intention of harming anyone with their language? If they happen to offend a party some day, I am sure they will adjust their vocabulary accordingly. Why the haste to preempt this rare event?

[arrobbiato]

Because a number of people on our team were born and raised in China. It’s very likely that some of them had family affected by the awful aftermath of the Hundred Flowers campaign.

[saulpw]

I had a manager once who said "work makes you free".

[DowsingSpoon]

Huh. What do you mean? Why should the phrase not be used?

My only experience with the phrase is to mean something along the lines of a calculated ploy to lure dissidents into exposing themselves for later punishment. The horrible historical context is pretty much the entire point of making the allusion at all.

[spacechild1]

Your usage is the correct one. Parent referred to people who mistakenly use the phrase in a positive sense.

[magnetowasright]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Flowers_Campaign

[layer8]

I disagree. The usage has detached from the historical context of the original (mis)quote, and there’s no good reason for it to be eternally enslaved by it. This is also reflected in entries like [0] and [1]. Indeed, the Wiktionary entry notes that it may “be used ironically, in negative view” of the Hundred Flower Campaign, which in turn means that by default that context isn’t implied, and instead as a proverb it merely has the meaning described above in the entry.

[0] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/let_a_thousand_flowers_bloom#...

[1] https://playjustsaying.com/idiom/let-a-thousand-flowers-bloo...

[arrobbiato]

I don’t think it would be acceptable to say “Arbeiten macht frei” in a casual conversation. Just because Chinese history is distant from and unfamiliar to western experience doesn’t mean we should trivialize it.

[engineer_22]

Best to just forget