"People fear becoming famous, just as pigs fear becoming fat"

人怕出名猪怕肥 - Ironically, it is a very famous Chinese saying, but -how do we interpret its meaning?

Reading a classic in Chinese literature - From the Soil (乡土中国) by Feili Tong (费李通), one can learn many of the different Chinese sayings that hold - as any other saying - the roots of a culture and people's popular wisdom. In this case, the second part of the phrase is relatively simple. I mean, we understand that if one pig gets too fat, then it is more likely to be killed for its meat, right?

Now, the first part is a little more complicated, especially in an era where everyone is, in fact, famous—influencers—or wants to be famous. The daily war to accumulate likes for what we do or say is a manifestation of the gold rush in terms of how everyone wants a little fame. However, aren't we disregarding something important that the first part of this powerful saying was trying to warn us about?

Let's take LinkedIn as a perfect example. When we start participating, engaging, and creating content, we tend to gain more followers and become famous for the network we want to reach and others. Our first thought would be that it is good because we associate fame with power and power with money or vice versa. However, being under the spotlight brings some complications.

When showing initiative and growing in this way, other people might look and say: it is clear that he/she is following what they want, they have it all sorted out, they want their own thing - they are lead singers. The latter can be very harmful since there are times that people like to share to grow their networks but would also enjoy being called to a team and working with them because gaining popularity through personal projects does not mean that the person is blind to the reach of fame. However, that could be interpreted and translated into being disregarded, for example, for something LinkedIn was built for - different jobs, headhunters, and institutions. In this case, 'fame' produced us harm.

Therefore, becoming famous can actually backfire on many of our projects because we are sending the wrong signals to others. Perhaps it is better to be at the back of the stage, doing what you need to do, not fat nor skinny, just at the right weight to be open to all possibilities and avoid misinterpretations or, in the poor pig's case, the butcher.

Can you think of other cases where fame is harmful to the person who is gaining it? Most probably, politics can be one case. However, isn't it another famous saying - there is nothing like bad publicity, AKA fame?

#ChineseCulture #SocialMediaWisdom #PersonalBranding #FameAndPerception