‘Magnificent and spectacular’ — Phrase of the Week

Our Phrase of the Week is: Magnificent and spectacular (轰轰烈烈 hōnghōng lièliè).

The context

Chinese football fans had a rare opportunity to watch soccer superstar Lionel Messi play last week in a friendly match (友谊赛 yǒuyìsài) against Australia at Beijing Workers’ Stadium.

An hour into the match, a teenage Lionel Messi fan, wearing a replica Argentina jersey with Messi’s number 10 on the back, ran onto the pitch, dodged security guards, and hugged his idol.

After his embrace with Messi, he ran across the pitch, continuing to outpace security guards, managed to briefly shake hands with Marcos Javier Acuña, and had a quick high-five with goalkeeper Lisandro Martínez, before eventually being brought down by six security guards and then carried off the pitch, his face beaming with a huge grin.

The one-minute clip was widely circulated online, becoming an internet sensation. By the end of the match, the teenager, who was allowed to return to his seat, had already become a celebrity, with fans in the stadium wanting to take selfies with him.

The fan, whose surname is Dǐ 邸, was praised by fans for being brave, full of energy, and willing to take a risk to fulfill his dream of meeting Messi.

One comment online garnered hundreds of thousands of likes:

The wind that a young person gallops with is more precious than gold. Magnificent and spectacular experiences are what life is about.

少年驰骋的风比黄金都贵，轰轰烈烈才是人生。

Shàonián chíchěng de fēng bǐ huángjīn dōu guì, hōnghōng lièliè cái shì rénshēng.

And with that, we have our Phrase of the Week.

What it means

Magnificent and spectacular is a four-character idiom. It captures the public sentiment about the young football fan.

The four characters are: 轰轰 hōnghōng, which means “loud and thunderous,” an onomatopoeia describing the sound, and “烈烈” lièliè, which describes the appearance of a raging flame, meaning “momentum,” or “a majestic aura.”

Together, they convey energy, passion, and spirit, and can be translated in different ways depending on the context.

The idiom first appeared in a poem by Wén Tiānxiáng 文天祥, a poet and scholar who was alive during the last years of the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279). Wen is a popular symbol of patriotism, righteousness, and resistance against tyranny in Chinese history, known for taking a stand against Kublai Khan’s invasion of the Southern Song, and his refusal to yield to the Yuan dynasty despite being captured and tortured.

The poem where our Phrase of the Week first appears is called “Dedication to the Temples of Zhang and Xu” (沁园春·题张许双庙 qìn yuán chūn tí zhāng xǔ shuāng miào).

The idiom appears in the following line:

In the fleeting moments of life, strive to make a magnificent and spectacular impact (on the nation and its people).

人生欻翕云亡，好烈烈轰轰做一场。

Rénshēng chūxī yúnwáng, hǎo lièliè hōnghōng zuò yì chǎng.

It’s a patriotic poem about what you can or should do for the nation. For the football fan last weekend, it was more about him making his own dream come true.

So perhaps a better translation of the idiom in this context would be: “Savor every moment of life.”