日本人在送禮物時，總不忘加上一句：“不是什么好東西”，哪怕心里覺得的確是好東西。這一點，倒很像中國人。

Gift-presenting is normally accompanied by the Japanese way of depreciation—“It’s a mere trifle”, although it may be worth a lot in their minds. In some way, this is very much like the Chinese。

不理解，請教點評

My comments:

In other words, it’s merely trifle, not really worthy.

Trifle being something small and insignificant, the speaker wants to point out that their gift is not much in terms of monetary value. Or the speaker is just being polite. He/she would say so even if the gift costs a lot.

Even if the gift isn’t worth much in terms of money, it’s worth a lot in other ways. It shows that the giver has kept the receiver in mind. The gift, as a token, shows his/her care and respect for the receiver.

And this simple give-and-take helps, in no small ways at all, make many communities go round.

Mere trifles perhaps, but insignificant.

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Go to Zhang Xin's column

本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網立場無關。歡迎大家討論學術問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發布一切違反國家現行法律法規的內容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin（張欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.