Etymology

a revolution is not a dinner party

Today it means: In order to achieve something, courtesy, long-held norms, and other such formalities must be dropped. Full definition →

Chinese 革命不是請客吃飯 /革命不是请客吃饭
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The story

  1. Chinese · calque of革命不是請客吃飯 /革命不是请客吃饭
  2. English todaya revolution is not a dinner party

Calque of Chinese 革命不是請客吃飯 /革命不是请客吃饭 (gémìng bùshì qǐngkè chīfàn, literally “revolution is not having guests to eat a meal”). An aphoristic political statement by Mao Zedong, defending violence as a means of imposing a different societal order; for more, see Wikipedia at revolution is not a dinner party.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.