孙佳慧

If your girlfriend says， “When I was taking my medicine this morning， I heard some news…” Do not， under any circumstances， answer， “What news？” If you do， you， my friend， have just fallen into a trap. The next thing youre likely to hear is， “Why didnt you ask me why I was taking medicine？ You dont care about me！” A slightly longer version of this relationship trap went viral online， and many victims of this scheme reached for a new， emerging phrase： Less strategy， more sincerity！ （少一點套路，多一点真诚。 Sh2o y#di2n t3ol&， du4 y#di2n zh8nch9ng.）

No one is sure about the exact origin of this slogan， but it is employed everywhere. Apparently， the essence of this buzzword is the word “套路”， or taolu， which is really hard to translate into English. The word refers to methods， tricks， strategies， or schemes， especially clichéd ones. Take， for example， the man who walks up to a woman in a bar and says， “Have we met before？” The response to this is， “Come on！ Less strategy， more sincerity， okay？” It means that he should stop with the routine nonsense and be more creative.

But in practice， since Chinese people rarely demonstrate their thoughts in a straightforward manner， strategy， or taolu， will always have its place. Chinese conversations can seem like a chess game sometimes; the one who pulls off the most tricks wins.

The most common taolu that youll hear is probably， “Heres a thing I am not supposed to tell you， but I feel like you should know.” Apparently the speaker is ready to gossip but will wait for you to ask what it is first， and if you do， youre the gossip. So， be tough and answer with， “Say it or save it. Less strategy， more sincerity， please. （爱说不说！少一点套路，多一点真诚。 Ai shu4 b& shu4！ Sh2o y#di2n t3ol&， du4 y#di2n zh8nch9ng.）”

Sometimes you can just omit the sincerity part， because the word taolu itself is useful enough. A pop stars promotional stunt is a taolu. You might hear someone say， “The lead actor and actress of the movie began a relationship？ Just exactly when will it come out？ （电影的男女主角被曝出恋情？在电影马上就要上映的时候？Di3ny@ng de n1n n） zh^ju9 b-i b3o ch$ li3nq！ng？ Z3i di3ny@ng m2sh3ng ji& y3o sh3ngy#ng de sh！hou？）” So， youll respond， “A classic taolu. I guess if they cooperate in another movie， their break-up will make even more headlines. （经典套路。我猜如果他们之后再合作一部电影，他们分手的消息还能再上一次头条。J～ngdi2n t3ol&. W6 c`i r%gu6 t`men zh～h7u z3i h9zu7 y！ b& di3ny@ng， t`men f8nsh6u de xi`oxi h1i n9ng z3i sh3ng y！ c# t5uti1o.）”

Actually， for many people， anything on the planet they dont understand can all be interpreted as taolu. When the game between AlphaGo and the South Korean Go master was in the news， regardless of all the AI technology behind the game， someone commented， “The robot is of course better at taolu than humans.” As for what taolu actually is， who cares？

If you are tired of the endless taolu， come back to our “less strategy， more sincerity” creed to help you get to the point.