洋八股

yángbāgǔ

phrase

Meanings

1 empty, formulaic writing dressed up in foreign style
2 stale, rigid discourse mimicking Western templates

Characters

foreign, Western

Examples

HSK 4

他的论文满是洋八股，看不到自己的观点。

Tā de lùnwén mǎn shì yángbāgǔ, kànbudào zìjǐ de guāndiǎn.

His paper is all stale Western-style formula - you can't find a single idea of his own.

HSK 7-9

演讲要实事求是，不能搞洋八股。

Yǎnjiǎng yào shíshì-qiúshì, bùnéng gǎo yángbāgǔ.

A speech should stay grounded in facts, not slip into hollow 'foreign eight-legged essays.'

Tips

history

八股 were the rigid eight-part essays required in the imperial exam, byword for hollow formula. Mao Zedong coined 洋八股 in his 1942 《反对党八股》 to attack dogmatic writing that dressed old emptiness in new foreign vocabulary.

Stroke Order

洋 yáng

八 bā

股 gǔ