日本人在送礼物时，总不忘加上一句：“不是什么好东西”，哪怕心里觉得的确是好东西。这一点，倒很像中国人。

Gift-presenting is normally accompanied by the Japanese way of depreciation—“It’s a mere trifle”, although it may be worth a lot in their minds. In some way, this is very much like the Chinese。

不理解，请教点评

My comments:

In other words, it’s merely trifle, not really worthy.

Trifle being something small and insignificant, the speaker wants to point out that their gift is not much in terms of monetary value. Or the speaker is just being polite. He/she would say so even if the gift costs a lot.

Even if the gift isn’t worth much in terms of money, it’s worth a lot in other ways. It shows that the giver has kept the receiver in mind. The gift, as a token, shows his/her care and respect for the receiver.

And this simple give-and-take helps, in no small ways at all, make many communities go round.

Mere trifles perhaps, but insignificant.

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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（张欣） 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.