Chinese Chengyu – 狼多肉少 –  Many Wolves Little Meat

Chinese Chengyu 狼多肉少 (láng duō ròu shǎo) literally translates to wolf (狼 láng) many (多 duō) meat (肉 ròu), little (少 shǎo). Or, in more standard English, ‘many wolves, little meat.’

This is one of the more direct chéngyǔ, that doesn’t require a huge background story to understand the meaning. It describes a situation where there are too many demands for a limited supply, i.e. there is not enough to go around.

You’ll hear this chengyu come up often when talking about areas of fierce competition (竞争 jìngzhēng). Common examples in China, would be when applying for a job that has a lot of candidates and a limited number of positions. Another example would be students taking the college entrance exam (高考 gāokǎo) and having a limited chance of getting a coveted spot at their University of choice.

Have you ever been in a situation with too many wolves and too little meat?

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Chinese Chengyu Vocabulary 

狼多肉少	láng duō ròu shǎo	Chéngyǔ	Many wolves, little meat
狼	Láng	n.	wolf
多	duō	adj.	many
肉	ròu	n.	meat
少	shǎo	adj.	less
高考	gāokǎo	n.	China’s college entrance examination
竞争	jìngzhēng	n.	Competition

Here are other ChengYu from Chinese language learning related to animals you might interested in: 狗急跳牆, 守株待兔.

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