Price of tea in China

"The price of tea in China" is an expression which is used to denote something which is unrelated to the current topic of discussion.

It has been said that this expression has stemmed from economists, who describe everything economic as affecting everything else, trying to find an expression which denotes the furthest logical connection from their current economic focus. In this way, the price of tea in China was used to denote the furthest possibility. It can also be used to denote an irrelevant topic.

It has the most common form "what does that have to do with the price of tea in China?", as a retort to an irrelevant suggestion. This facetious usage implies that the topic under discussion might as well be the price of tea in China for all the relevance the interlocutor's suggestion bears on it.

There is also the derivative form of "what does that have to do with the price of rice in China," due to the common association between countries of Asia and rice.

A similar phrase is "the price of fish in Ireland" which is used in the exact same sense, such as "what does that have to do with the price of fish?"

External links

* [http://www.phrases.org.uk Common English phrases]