且行且珍惜 (qiě xíng qiě zhēn xī)

ETYMOLOGY

In March 2014, Chinese actor Wen Zhang's extramarital affair scandal dominated entertainment news. His wife Ma Yili's Weibo response—'Love is easy, marriage is hard, let's walk carefully and cherish what we have'—went viral with 1.6 million reposts in 24 hours.

Netizens dissected the phrase's linguistic appeal:

The parallel structure 'qie...qie...' creates poetic tension'Walk' (action) contrasts with 'cherish' (sentiment)Five-character rhythm matches Chinese mnemonic patternsThis evolved into a cultural phenomenon:

Baidu search index surged 3200% in April 2014State media People's Daily analyzed its implications for modern marriageSparked derivative memes like 'Eat carefully and diet' (且吃且减肥)Modern application:

When clients repeatedly change demands, project managers might post: 'Proposals are easy, implementation is hard, let's revise carefully and cherish sanity.'