The architecture of “not bad”: Decoding the Chinese source code of the void

Prevalence of “not bad”–style expressions in English and beyond

• Many commenters argue the article overstates the difference: English already uses constructions like “not bad,” “not wrong,” “no problem,” “can’t complain,” often as mild praise.
• British, Australian, New Zealand, German, Polish and other varieties are said to lean heavily on these, sometimes more than US English.
• In some cultures/languages, “not bad” (or equivalents) can range from “adequate” to “surprisingly very good,” with tone and context doing the work.
• Several people note strong regional patterns even within the US (e.g., Pacific Northwest, Minnesota) where litotes and understatement are common.

Chinese patterns, litotes, and grammar

• The construction the article highlights is identified as litotes; some note that Chinese “bu cuo” is literally “not wrong/bad” but semantically closer to “good/OK,” and can even be intensified (“very not bad”).
• Native/advanced Chinese speakers stress that straightforward affirmation is also normal; the negated forms often fall out of specific verb structures (e.g., “guess-wrong” vs “guess-right”) rather than a deep cultural aversion to directness.
• Some think the author is noticing a real preference difference but is pushing it too far and treating “Chinese” and “American English” as overly monolithic.

Cultural style, politeness, and face

• Multiple comments tie negated praise to politeness, avoidance of boasting, and “face” in Chinese, but also to British understatement, German/Australian directness vs softening, and other local norms.
• One perspective: in Chinese contexts, strong affirmation can imply claiming expertise and authority, so people default to vaguer, face-preserving evaluations.
• Others point out analogous indirectness in Japanese (“different” instead of “wrong”) and English (“different/special” as euphemisms).

Philosophical and linguistic framing

• Some invoke semiotics (Greimas square), modal/intuitionistic logic, Daoist contrasts of “with/without,” and Sapir–Whorf–style linguistic relativity to support the idea that negation structures thought.
• Others push back, criticizing romanticization of “Eastern” languages and asserting the mainstream linguistic view that all languages are in principle equally expressive, though they differ in ease for particular concepts.

Ambiguity, “unwant,” and empathy

• A side thread explores how English blurs “no desire” vs “negative desire” (“I don’t want X”), proposing terms like “diswant” or “I want not X.”
• Commenters link such ambiguities to miscommunication in product design, negotiation, and everyday empathy.