What is the Chinese term for “grit”?

Chinese Characters: Profiles of Fast-Changing Lives in a Fast-Changing Land edited by Angilee Shah and Jeffrey Wasserstrom will challenge any statistical blandness that you may subscribe about China. Such facts as that over 90% of the Chinese population is ethnic Han, seems to imply that the Chinese is a homogenous people. On the contrary, China’s population is nothing as genetically nor culturally homogeneous as Korean or Japanese populations. This collection of vignettes “tell[s] stories of individuals… living through their country’s remarkable rise after centuries of war and want.” (Wasserstrom, 12) For example, Wasserstrom describes a rural migrant worker, representative of the 150 million strong labor force in China, that typifies the “extraordinary tenacity, resilience and grit” that keep the Chinese manufacturing economy going. This cultural value he identifies as ‘chiku’ (吃苦pronounced like chīrkǔ), literally meaning “eating bitterness”. It is closely akin to the term “coolie”. “Coolie”, according to contemporary dictionaries is considered “pejorative and offensive” and in our politically correct world, should be strongly avoided. However, for educational purposes “coolie” represents a crucial aspect of Chinese culture. “Coolie” comes from苦力 (pronounced kǔlì), bitter labor, based on the same root term. It is the name for the Chinese laborers who participated in building America’s transcontinental railroads in the 19th century. “Coolies” was a term given not only to the indentured Chinese laborers, but a social class that they identified themselves. In Chinese society, they were the same people who carried sedan chairs and rickshaws as recently as the early 20th century. To show the cultural value of enduring “bitterness”, “coolie” wasn’t a term that people said hush hush behind a worker’s back, but also a sign of virtue that marked the worker as having the potential to succeed. “Chiku”, or the ability to endure some bitterness, is the Chinese term for “grit”.

In fact, one reason why the bitter melon is favored in Chinese culture underlines the value of grit. “Eating bitter” melon, is a pun on the Chinese work ethics. If you are tough enough to “eat bitter” melon, you are tough enough.