People at the bottom level are grass roots cao gen jie ceng ( grass roots class); sometimes they are also regarded as straws: cao jian ren ming ( straw grass people's life). Of course straw is not as strong as wood, so cao tai banzi ( straw stage troupe) is a knock-together. A show presented on such a stage would more often than not cao cao shuo chang ( grassy grassy wind up - come to a hasty end). Straw can be powerful; it can save someone's life as jiu ming dao cao ( life-saving straw). Grass can also survive a storm - ji feng zhi jin cao ( swift wind knows strong grass - adversity is the touchstone of a man). It has boundless vitality, when we try to comfort a broken heart, we would say tian ya he chu wu fang cao ( fragrant grass grows everywhere, meaning talents or love can be found everywhere). But it's not advisable for a man to zhan hua re cao ( touch flower tease grass - sow wild oats).

(China Daily 03/28/2007 page15)