3/26/2018 0 Comments Dexterous Force (巧力/巧劲)This is a concept extremely difficult to translate into one single phrase in English, and I admit that I am not at all satisfied with my own translation. Instead, I hope to explain the meaning more thoroughly here.
“Dexterous force” is a concept in contrast with “strong force” in the Western culture, where the strength and effectiveness of a force can be easily measured in Newton (N, or kg*m/s2). Simply put, the stronger, the better. A masculine body builder hitting a sandbag exhibits more strong force than a kitty pushing its toy. A tennis player serving at 150 mph has hit the ball with more strong force than a player serving at 100 mph. In state fairs, sometimes you may see devices to measure the strong force, and you hit that thing as hard as you can, hoping to break a record and win some prize. These are all about “strong force”, simple and straightforward. “Dexterous force”, on the other hand, is not so much about how many Newton are generated. It is more about using correct way to apply the smallest force possible in order to achieve the largest impact. In other words, people who use dexterous force are not necessarily masculine at all (and they don’t need to be in most cases), but they can exert the force gracefully to achieve the desired outcome, much better than someone with lots of “strong force”. I agree that this is still abstract, so some examples may help. One example is serving in tennis. Every tennis fan can readily understand the importance of serves in tennis, that a good serve can easily set you up with dominance on the court. It is intuitive to think that faster serves (serves that require more strong force to hit the ball) are better. While there is no denying that some tennis players do use fast serves as a weapon, it is striking to notice that the top players tend not to serve the fastest serve. Roger Federer’s serves are definitely not the fastest among male players, but they are nevertheless (arguably) the most effective. Often the time a serve at 110 mph from Roger Federer can be more challenging to return than a serve at 150 mph from Ivo Karlovic—why? The former incorporates “dexterous force”, and the ball is hit in such a way at such an unexpected angle that make the serve formidable, though Federer may not have used as much strong force as Karlovic. In other words, it is not only about how much muscle you have on your arm, but more about how you actually use those muscles to achieve the best outcome. Here is another example for non-tennis fans. In another blog I talked about the ambiguity of Chinese recipes/cookbooks compared to the details contained in American recipes/cookbooks. Partly this may be due to the difficulty of describing the “dexterous force” involved in Chinese cooking. Take the example of making steamed buns (yum~!!). A typical Chinese recipe would probably describe the ingredients that go into the stuffing and the dough (for the wrappers), and maybe the approximate amount of each ingredient if you are lucky enough to find a more detail-oriented recipe. However, in all likelihood, this would be the direction given on how to make the bun once you have prepared the stuffing and the wrappers, “put some stuffing into a wrapper, fold the wrapper around the stuffing carefully so it becomes a closed bun”. It sounds easy, doesn’t it? Have you ever tried it? Is it easy? To be fair the Chinese recipe did not lie, but it does not describe exactly HOW to fold wrapper. This process requires dexterous force, and very little strong force. The wrapper needs to be held in one hand (in a particular way) while the other hand picks up one edge carefully and starts forming the “wrinkles” in a coordinated way, using just enough force to pinch the dough together, meanwhile rotating the wrapper to continue finishing the folding. The best way to learn is to watch a video or watch a very experienced chef. I find it extremely difficult to verbalize the whole process in Chinese, let alone in English (which may be why the Chinese recipes don’t describe it). When I talked to my mom, she just said “use dexterous force”. Dexterous force is all about “the best way” to use as little force as possible. It requires coordination and skills that you usually cannot train in a gym. When you use dexterous force correctly, you do not actually need much muscle strength. In fact, muscle strength does not help with dexterous force at all. A boxing champion does not have any advantage in wrapping a Chinese bun over a young child with little muscle strength. If the latter knows the correct way to do it and executes it well, s/he wins despite the lack of muscle strength.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |