Your shirttail 's hanging out . Don 't I look like a sheriff ?
你的衬摆还挂在外面呢我看起来像不像警长？
An englishman , writing in 1840 , noted : " if we could only persuade every person in china to lengthen his shirttail by a foot , we could keep the mills of lancashire working round the clock . "
The promise-and frequent disappointment-of doing business in china has been a common theme since at least the 19th century , when weavers in manchester were said to dream of adding a few inches to every shirttail in china .
The 19th-century englishman who mused that , if every chinese lengthened his shirttail by a foot , textile mills would spin year-round , has been replaced by 21st-century westerners hoping that chinese will step in to buy their sedans and insurance products .
