Change their tune? 改弦易辙

Reader question:

Please explain “change their tune” in this:

To improve business, downtown districts need to change their tune on prioritizing cars and be more accommodating to bikes and pedestrians.

My comments:

You can’t do your shopping without leaving your cars, so it makes sense that downtown districts should be friendlier to bikes and pedestrians instead of cars only.

For years, accommodating cars and vehicles has been the theme, or central idea of urban development. One reason is that cars are relatively new. People are owning their own cars for the first time. So urban developers have gone out of their way to make room for them, oftentimes at the expense of bikers and pedestrians. In some downtown areas, you can no longer walk around freely without being confronted by cars and parking lots.

Not as freely as in the past, at any rate.

The upshot is that fewer and fewer bikers and pedestrians go shopping downtown.

That, in turn, have hurt retail sales.

Hence the suggestion: Be more accommodating to bikers and pedestrians and business will hopefully improve in downtown areas.

Oh, change their tune.

Musicians change their tunes literally from piece to piece. And every time they do that, we hear a new tune with different rhythm or mood.

In our example, downtown developers are advised to change their tune and be more accommodating to bikers and pedestrians.

In our example, “change their tune” is used as a metaphor and, as a metaphor, “change one’s tune” can be used to represent any change in opinion or behavior.

People often change their tune after something happened – in our example, after bikers and pedestrians begin to shun the downtown area.

In other words, people change their tune to adapt to new situations.

They make adjustments to get in lockstep with the changing times.

To sound really hip, they move with the times.

Or as one translator tells me, advance with the times. Politicians, he says, always prefer “advance with the times”.

Well, politicians always advance, of course, never retreat – no matter how many times they change their tune.

All right, joking aside, here are media examples of people who change their tune after this incident or that:

1. Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic changed his tune on the championship parade that took place Thursday in downtown Denver.

On Monday after the Nuggets sealed their first-ever NBA championship, Jokic was dismayed learning that he had to stay in Denver until the Thursday celebration.

“No,” he said Monday, “I need to go home.” During his rounds with the press he said he needed to get home for a horse race on Sunday. Jokic famously has a strong passion for horses and horse racing. His family operates stables called the Dream Catcher, named after the name of the first racehorse that Jokic ever purchased years ago.

As he addressed thousands of Nuggets fans at Civic Center Park Thursday, though, it seemed like there was no place he’d rather be.

“You know I [said] I didn’t want to stay [for the] parade, but I f***ing want to stay [for the parade],” Jokic told a crowd that welcomed him with “MVP” chants. “This is the best day of my f***ing life.”

He continued to say he and his teammates would remember the celebration forever, and ended his brief address with a thank you to Nuggets fans: “This one is for you.”

Hundreds of thousands turned out for the parade and celebration Thursday, which celebrated the Nuggets’ first title in the franchise’s 47 years of existence

- Nikola Jokic enjoyed the Nuggets’ parade after all: ‘This is the best day of my life’, Dever7.com, June 15, 2023,

2. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-New York) – who is thought of as a leading candidate to be former President Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate – recently deleted a 2021 statement from her website calling for the prosecution of January 6 participants.

Stefanik apparently deleted the statement after former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) linked to it on Saturday. On her official X/Twittr account, Cheney called the statement a “rare moment of honesty” from the woman who replaced her as House Republican Conference chair, adding that “she will have to explain how and why she morphed into a total crackpot.”

Cheney noted in a subsequent tweet that Stefanik deleted the statement from her website without explanation. However, she included a screenshot of the statement in the post, telling her 644,000-plus followers to “feel free to share.”

“This is a tragic day for America. I fully condemn the dangerous violence and destruction that occurred today at the United States Capitol,” Stefanik said in the now-deleted statement. “Americans have a Constitutional right to protest and freedom of speech, but violence in any form is absolutely unacceptable and ant-American.”

“The perpetrators of this un-American violence and destruction must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” she added. “Thank you to the United States Capitol Police, all law enforcement, the National Guard and the bipartisan professional staff of the United States Capitol for protecting the People’s House and the American people.”

The New York Republican has since changed her tune on January 6 defendants, whom she now refers to as “hostages.” That concerned fellow New York lawmaker Rep. Dan Goldman (D-New York) so much that he filed a censure resolution against Stefanik, calling it “the culmination of a rhetoric that has gone too far.”

Stefanik may have deleted the statement in order to ingratiate herself with Trump, as his commanding wins in the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary move him closer to the Republican presidential nomination and the selection of a running mate. Trump has not only used the “hostages” label for January 6 rioters, but has promised to pardon the vast bulk of them if elected to a second term. More than 1,200 arrests have been made in connection to the insurrection, and the Department of Justice has secured guilty pleas and convictions from roughly 800 of those charged.

- Elise Stefanik caught deleting statement calling for January 6 rioters to be prosecuted, AlterNet.org, January 27, 2024.

3. Luke Littler has previously doubted whether anybody can get close to Phil Taylor’s darts record.

But the 17-year-old has now changed his tune and admitted he’s looking to win many titles over the years to establish himself as the greatest of all time.

Littler has made a promising start to his career in the sport.

Having flourished at the World Darts Championship back in the New Year, the teenager has since continued to shine in the Premier League.

Speaking in February, Littler was asked about potentially competing with Taylor’s record of 16 world titles.

He doubted whether it was possible, saying at the time: “I don’t think anyone’s beating that record!

“It’s just crazy, crazy to think of me being bigger than Phil.

“I’ve said to many people I’ve not really set any goals. I just get on with it. I just have to throw my darts and see where they go.

“I’m still gobsmacked that I’m here, getting all these opportunities. I’m just taking it in my stride as I do.”

Yet Littler has now seemingly changed his tune and admitted he’s hoping to beat Taylor’s haul.

Speaking on The Happy Hour podcast, when asked about how many titles he’d like to win, he said: “I’d love to beat Phil Taylor’s record of 16, so I’d say 18.”

Littler was unknown just a few months ago.

But, with the youngster now a household name, he’s had to adjust to life in the spotlight.

And Littler has admitted things can ‘get a bit too much’ for him, insisting he sometimes ‘just wants to go home’.

“If I’m out, I don’t mind doing a few (photos) but when it gets too much, I just want to go home then,” he said.

- Luke Littler changes his tune on Phil Taylor as darts star reveals sad side to newfound fame, GBNews.com, March 28, 2024.

本文仅代表作者本人观点，与本网立场无关。欢迎大家讨论学术问题，尊重他人，禁止人身攻击和发布一切违反国家现行法律法规的内容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：张欣  编辑：丹妮）