Earlier this year in one of my classes, a guest instructor was explaining a concept of a collaborative theater process when she said,

"You know, the Chinese character for 'self' actually means 'a piece of the pie'."

The classroom murmured appreciation at the wisdom of this statement.

I paused and tried to think if that was true. Across the room, I saw another Chinese classmate pause and think. Giggles branched out around the two of us as people saw our "confused, thinking" faces. The instructor hesitated, looked at us, and asked--"that--that's true, right?"

My classmate and I shrugged-- "Ji, zi ji, does that mean--?" "I'm not sure..." "Is there another way to say 'self'?"

"How do you even say PIE in Chinese?"

The instructor, to her credit, made a quick recovery. "Well, regardless, it's a good concept. Let's just take the Chinese element out." And then she continued on.

Sometimes I feel in studying theater that we ascribe great weight and meaning to supposedly wise and all-knowing sources. Whether it's a "mystical Asian" source, or a weighty name of a famed artist, we subscribe almost religiously to the quotes and quips of the "greats". "Grotowski says", or "As Chekhov wrote..."

While there's nothing wrong with respecting, studying and appreciating insightful phrases, wisdoms, and factoids, I think it's always important to never take anything for granted. Always ask "why", "how", and "are you sure?" Perhaps 9 times out of 10, you'll discover--yes, Chekhov or Grotowski or whoever were damn right about whatever it was they were talking about. But occasionally, maybe you'll find something isn't quite accurate--or even better, that it is, but that your investigation of it has led you to a deeper understanding of its meaning and machinations.

In the example of that guest instructor, the actual origin of the quote was the only thing that was suspect--the ideology behind what she was trying to say was pretty sound and useful. But the hyper-culturally aware part of me couldn't help but feel the echoing repercussions of Orientalism and the "other-ization" of philosophy and wisdom that somehow was supposed to lend credibility to it, while the linguist in me was mildly indignant at the poor use of translation and often mis-cited, poorly explained and mangled terms that passes for "Chinese sayings" or phrases.

But then the fat kid in me just wanted some freakin' pie for the rest of that class.

End result: a deeper reflection on the issue at hand, and ordering pie at lunch. Win win.