lol I like that saying about the bear and leopard..its suggestive (and correctly so) about the superstitious nature of the older chinese and the fact that they eat animal parts to strengthen their own
You are right though Archetypal..Chinese is a deep language, and each character can have two or more meanings when used in different contexts. These days, the traditional chinese language system is used in Taiwan, and China uses simplified Chinese. A lot of times, the folks from these two countries do not understand one another when it comes to specific terms being used. It can be fun learning a foreign language but Chinese (or even the spoken Mandarin) can be a painful one if one intends to explore beyond everyday words. I guess the same can be said for most other foreign languages.