Question Is there an English equivalent for 先抑后扬?

先抑后扬 is a Chinese idiom which refers to someone putting you down at first and then raising you up afterwards.

I tried but couldn't think of an equivalent idiom in the English language.

 

Carrot and stick, or stick and carrot

 

I'm screwing you over now so that life won't have to later.
AKA
Building Character

 

Sounds exactly like when you push someone towards water, then save them and say, "saved your life!" It was something we did as kids all the time

 

roller coaster ride
or the usual carrot and stick

 

No pain no gain

 

Boot camp training strategy , they break you down to build you up.

 

Carrot and stick isn't quite it, carrot and stick refers to rewards and punishments at the same time, not one after the other.

I don't think English has an idiom for it but it does have the concept from "spartan training" and "boot camp". And "character building". Just don't think they have a specific idiom for it.

 

So what do you call it when the manager at work breaks down the new guy by criticizing him and then raises him up later when he does something right?

Is there a handy idiom for that?

Or a way to shorten it?

I just thought of "using the break-first-and-rebuild-later stratagem".

 

That's the problem. English does not have an idiom for it. They have the concept but they did not put it into poetry like the Chinese did. In fact, the English concept is more accurately "criticise in private, praise in public", so you won't get the "shame in public" implications of the Chinese idiom.

 

resocialization

 

Stockholm syndrome

 

Not quite agree with some of the opinions above, 先抑后扬 is a writing skill that usually used in describing something/someone you wanted to praise.
From the BaiduBaikehttps://baike.baidu.com/item/先抑后扬

→ In the War States Strategies, there's a story called "FengXuan and his lord MengChang" . In the begining of the story, FengXuan had no hobbies nor abilities. He did nothing but complaining of his low remuneration all the time. It seems that FengXuan is a lazy guy. Then, the author told a nice plot of how FengXuan formed several nice scheme for his lord, which showed his extraordinary talents. The description of FengXuan's shortcomings in former is to contrast with his brilliance. And this writing technic is call 先抑后扬.

To my opinion, Carrot and stick is about boss encouraging his employees.
先抑后扬 is to discribe a person's disadvantages before you praise about him/her to whom you're talking to.