Quid Pro Quo Bu Hao Chi

Hao Chi!

This phrase means bon, appetite in Mandarin – eet smakelijk!

With a new year, we make new wishes. I already wished for 2026 to be a year of reconciliation. For myself I wish it to be a year with a nice taste to it as well.

As taste is such a personal thing, it almost feels weird to wish for someone else to let some food or drink taste nicely.

Determinism is oppression. Are you telling me which flavours to like?!

Ah, who am I kidding– I like all kinds of flavours. Spicy, creamy, savoury & sweets, hearty and nourishing. World Cuisine, local dishes, Mandarin, Greek, they all taste delicious 😘

Hao Chi means eet smakelijk, but it’s also a confirmation – this food tastes delicious. So if you want to ask, you say Hao Chi Ma? – Chinese like to ask their moms whether it tastes nice.

Okay. I may now have to apologise to the entirety of China, but I feel they understood the joke. The thing is, whenever you want to turn a phrase into a question in Mandarin, you simply append Ma? and it becomes a question. And yes, mama is Mama in Chinese too.

If you haven’t caught on yet, this post is about cultural (mis)appropriation, specifically at a linguistic level.

Quid pro quo is a Latin phrase. It means, “voor wat hoort wat” in Dutch. In English, I think the Latin phrase is still somewhat common, especially among lawyers.

But I wouldn’t really know, because I’m not a fan of the phrase to begin with. Quid pro quo bu hao chi – Bu means not in Mandarin – Quid pro quo makes a transaction out of every interaction, and that’s not an idea I wish to subscribe to.

So let 2026 be the year where we stop treating our interactions as transactions, and let our feelings guide our paths again.

Let love find its way again without regard for the consequences.

We can always clean up again later 😘

Wo Ye Ai Ni Men!