"Yi Qiong Er Bai" literally means "poor to the point of having nothing, blank to the point of having nothing," where "qiong" refers to economic backwardness and material scarcity, and "bai" refers to a low cultural and scientific level, like a blank sheet of paper. This idiom originates from Mao Zedong's works such as "On the Ten Major Relationships," and was used to describe the situation of a weak economic foundation and backward culture and science and technology in the early days of the People's Republic of China. It bears a distinct imprint of its era, serving both as a description of objective difficulties and as an implicit positive dialectical meaning: "a blank sheet of paper is best for drawing the newest and most beautiful pictures." It is mostly used to describe a low starting point and a weak foundation in the development of a country, region, organization, or individual, and is often paired with words such as "change," "struggle," and "construction." Its emotional tone is relatively neutral, sometimes slightly self-deprecating or motivational, emphasizing the determination to start from zero and strive for strength. In contemporary times, it can also be used as a metaphor for a field where the foundation is almost nonexistent and everything needs to be built from scratch.
📝 Example
1. This small county town in the mountainous area was completely impoverished, without even a decent road, but after ten years of hard work, it has now become a tourist destination.
2. When he first started his business, he was completely impoverished, with only a shabby office and three employees, but now his company has gone public.