Serving People

同志们好
首长好
同志们幸苦了
为人民服务！

Hello comrades,
Hello leader,
Comrades, you have worked hard,
Serve the people!

There was a restaurant in Chicago, Lao Hunan, that had the last sentence written on their wall, in both languages. But in English they wrote “Serving People.” When I took my father to the restaurant, he told the waiter: “you translated it wrong. It’s missing the the.” And the waiter responded, yes, but you know, we have to adapt to the American audience’s tastes. In language as in food, it seems that adaptation is the key to Chinese restaurants’ success.

But in fact, this idea is rather universal. After all, what are companies and products there for but to serve the needs of their customers? And even in leadership we often talk about the idea of “servant leadership.” And indeed, it was Lao Tzu (no relation) who wrote in The Classic of the Dao:

The sage does not accumulate (for himself).
The more that he expends for others,
the more does he possess of his own;
the more that he gives to others, 
the more does he have himself.

聖人不積，
既以為人，
己愈有，
既以與人，
己愈多。