Discussion IRL analogues of CN tropes

I wanna know what irl equivalents of Xianxia/other CN tropes would be.
For instance, what would be the irl version of "You've eyes but cant see Mt.Tai"?
Or "Everyone else looked at MC with admiration, and girls and women even started to wink at MC."
You know, the usual stuff

Edit: Maybe I wasn't clear earlier, wasn't looking for the meaning of these tropes as much as real life examples of these y'all encountered

 

Cant see Mt Tai : Dont overestimate yourself Dont underestimate me
Every girl loves the protagonist: Don Juan, Cassanova, Romeo

 

Like when you're looking everywhere for the remote and you end up finding it right in front of you where you started searching?

 

U r courting death: Said to my younger cousin when he was attempting to jump off a high wall. Also, to my sis when she was messing with my phone settings.

Junior, u dare: Said to my dog when he was about to piss on the couch's leg.

 

It's obviously not recognizing greatness, even if it towers in front of you.

 

As OP said tropes I think what's meant are, for example,

Those 'cool', rude, young customers not knowing even my little sister could slap them to oblivion if not for laws/ social conventions

Could be RL arrogant young masters?

 

You go shopping and a tourist is making a scene always tourists.

 

Am a little confused what you mean by analogues.
An archer is an ancient analog/analogue (old school spelling, noun) of modern riflemen.

So are you asking what the English equivalent idioms/references are for CN tropes (which is what @Wujigege is responding)?

"Can't see Tai Shan" (or "to have eyes but be unable to recognize Tai Shan) = Being blind to the fact that ...
Btw, in this instance, I don't think 泰山 refers to a mountain.
Tai Shan was a person that just happened to be named that way. He was Lu Ban's (a legendary carpenter) student/son who was evicted from the workshop because Lu Ban thought he sucked. Eventually Tai Shan made a name for himself, Lu Ban came across his works and didn't recognize who made it.

 

[D]

 

To find out more about our MC and the possible dangers he/she/it has to face, read the reports of their enemies here.

 

I fixed my response @elengee

 

Well you were partly right as it's a piece of the puzzle. 'having eyes on the top of your head' = looking down on others.
Those that look down, fail to see beyond their own sight since a mountain is far above you.

 

Wise words from a sage daoist
I am in awe

 

The thing with chinese tropes or rales is that is incredibly varied so you have to deduce the meaning (as they like to talk in analogies), Other languages are more direct but less flowery. For example
Can't see Mt Tai.
You don't know/realize who am I? or I'm the greatest X and you didn't realize.
Because the wording is more direct is usually more abrupt, lacking in style or crass so is not used.
However you could adapt to: "There is no pill for regret".
Usually the mt tai is because someone committed a blunder and made a big error without realizing the position of the other person so it actually covers 2 meanings, the regret of the person and the lack of realization about the standing of the other person (also Wujigege & elengee, neither are correct as both lack the regret).
If you want equivalents sadly you are out of luck because everyone of them has many cultural connotations and hidden meanings on the same phrase.
Another one is the fisherman or the oriole analogies. Both have a similar saying that you should be aware of the third party in the shadows however because of the different meaning and uses on both sometimes you can use one or the other and won't be possible to swap them. The fisherman is about patience, timing and benefiting with little work, the oriole is about a dangerous situation, a shadow partner hidden (usually the mc) and about risk. Even the uses are different. The fisherman tale is used when the main actor is hidden, is superior to the ones fighting and has little to no danger involver and the oriole tale while the main actor (oriole) is hidden and superior there is always danger and risk involved.
If you are interested in all of this you should read "The Human Emperor" as it uses many of this tales. Starvecleric (the translator for the first part, dunno if he is still translating it) made TONS of notations about everything, this could help you understand more about this. Also "I'm Really a Superstar", it has a lot more of nuances. THE is not bad but is super flowery, IRaS is too nationalistic and stupid for my taste (although the start is good, till the university part I would say it's quite good, after that you can just ignore it).
And yeah most of this phrases and analogies are actually short tales AFAIK.

Also about using them in real life (which I realize is the main topic but I got a little sidetracked).
Again because on the difference in culture you can find a lot of more useful or better ways to say rather than those tropes. Hell I doubt even chinese talk like that all the time.

 

Fair point but a translation doesn't have to be literal.
It is supposed to be a proverb/saying. Which means it should be short.
English in her current form is also less wordy than Chinese.

 

Translating a proverb like mt tai is actually a literal translation as you are not translating the meaning and just using the original phrase so the reader learns the nuances. And yes translations for novels should be like that so you, the reader, learn to understand and appreciate the cultural nuances in the phrase

 

Sorry, that is not a successful translation. As someone who manages a webnovel translation website, I am speaking from experience
If you need a dictionary, need to google, need another paragraph of footnote to explain a translation then the translator has failed.
Translation without localization, is essentially pointless.
You are not translating to English for ethnic Chinese to read

 

Disclaimer, I do admit to nitpick a lot about different things, please don't take it personal.
Before you said that translations should not be literal, literal and successful are 2 different things.
There are a couple of problem with translating. Some works actually NEED the context that is not given by the novel, for example The Human Emperor you need the historical references for it to make more sense and for it to be enjoyed more. The Human Emperor is both a novel that I consider quite stupid (too much flowery language, WAAAY too much time spent on praising the MC, etc) but it's also one of the best translations I ever read thanks to StarveCleric notations, The Experimental Log of the Crazy Lich is also another novel in which you NEED the notations for it to make sense (as the many gentleman/pervert double entendre jokes would be lost among many many others)(again a poor novel but if the translation is not up to par then in lose meaning).
Another novel which is superbly translated is I Shall Seal the Heavens (Deathblade is an excellent translator). This is a very successful translation and still has to have notations for things in which you may not understand culturally.
Another one in which this is even more important is I'm Really a Superstar. This novel is filled with cultural undertones in which you don't always have the notations to explain about different things and you have to piece together the meaning. This is a work that could completely fail do to the translator (OFFTOPIC to be fair to fail the novel on grounds of translations would be unjust as the novel is bad. The first few hundred chapters are decent but quickly starts to go bad). Sadly don't remember the translator name from WW, for the poetry chapters he did quite a good job (because they would not be understood at all without that) for the rest he explained the more uncommon terms but not others (for an experience reader there is no problem, at that point I was just starting to read chinese novels and could't understand somethings).
If you start translating novels in a non literal way then you are actually removing nuances and content for the sake of practicality and understanding, the bad part is that chinese novels have too many nuances hidden EVERYWHERE so you can't always do that. The Rise of the Otaku for example is a good example of a novel that can be translated in a more non literal way (and I also consider it successful) but not many can.

 

It is the sub vs dub debate again
and
Those who want to keep honorifics in a translation.
It is one thing to translate a novel set in historical China and then keeping the nuances in it
and dealing with a novel that is simply trying to use a joke to make a point eg You cant see Mt Tai.
for something like I am Really a Superstar, if Mt Tai is used, it is simply for comedic purposes to move ahead the face slapping.
I will say it again, you seem to Chinese or at least understand the language.
For an average reader who understands just English, that kind of thinking doesnt work.
Other better examples are stories set in medieval times, keeping things like Mt Tai to me is even counterproductive
Dont you ever wonder why historical novels are unpopular here?
English dubs are a lot more popular than the loud minority of anime fans seem too believe
I invite an expert @ToastedRossi

 

As I said before, some novels actually need that for the setting (as you said many medieval) but also many xianxia (personal belief) are more apreciated if you understand the cultural implications better (from the do X for this young master, to even understanding about "face" and other particularities that plague chineses novels). Some do not need them (The Rise of the Otaku), some may use them (I Shall Seal the Heavens) and some need them (The Human Emperor).
Also this was me nitpicking not trying to say that it should be like this always. Translating proverbs or tales or X sometimes makes sense and others is just the author trying to sound stylish when he is a horribly writer (SOOOO MANY NOVELS LIKE THIS! FUCK!). Korean novels don't have too much of this (or haven't noticed at least), Japanese novels have several things like that and it gets bothersome but sometimes makes sense (Otou-san is not the same as chichi-ue and the nuances of the use vary a lot. It could be simplified to dad/father/old man but it may lose some of those nuances).
In any case, some novels do need it, some others not that much but is not a black and white kind of thing, it's subjective in most cases.