English for 八面玲瓏

[semantic nuance]

Hi,

I'd like to know the english expressions for the person/behavior that I will describe below.

A person that is more of a social climber to please everyone without sincerity. He/She has no true enemy nor true friend. He/She is so good at diplomacy, trying to be friendly without offending anyone. Could you plrsdr give me some expressions about this kind of person or the behavior ( both approving and disapporving) ?

BTW, I'd like to know: how do you say 八面玲瓏 in English? as in 他這個人長袖善舞, 八面玲瓏, 誰都不得罪.

Thank you very much for your help.

[studentyoung]

八面玲瓏

1. (in establishing social relations) be smooth and slick, able to please everybody

http://dict.cn/search/?q=%B0%CB%C3%E6%C1%E1%E7%E7&r=%B0%CB%C3%E6%C1%E1%AD%87

Thanks!

[HashiriKata]

SN, I'm just a non-native speaker like you (but at least you can speak Chinese! ), so can only drop a few words for you to see if any is suitable:

He's a smooth operator

He's a social climber

He's a city slicker

(!! Worst of all: ) He's a creep

[semantic nuance]

Thank you very much for your prompt replies, studentyoung and HK. I really appreciate that.

HK, you listed a few translations, could you please make one sentence of any of them for me to better understand the usage of '八面玲瓏'?

Also, any other suggestions are all welcome. If anyone knows the similar phrases or idioms or verbs to describe the action of 八面玲瓏 in English, please tell me.

Thanks once again.

[HashiriKata]

HK, you listed a few translations, could you please make one sentence of any of them for me to better understand the usage of '八面玲瓏'?

I'll see if I can, but for now I just jot down what I think you may be able to take up and work from there.

Along with the nouns I gave above, there are also "a glib talker", "a smoothy", etc., and most of these are characteristically negative. Interestingly, positive words that I can find for 八面玲瓏 tend to be in the form of an adjective: suave, resourceful, socially adept, etc. Does this mean that we're better (and more ready) at giving others a bad name than a good one?

[Ole]

Here is the Wenlin-translation:

八面玲珑[---瓏] bāmiàn-línglóng id. ①at home in various social settings ②good at juggling many involvements

[muyongshi]

八面玲珑[---瓏] bāmiàn-línglóng id. ①at home in various social settings ②good at juggling many involvements

I don't know if this is correct in the actual usage but sounds a lot like "life of the party" or in a work situation "jack of all trades". Jack of all sounds a bit off but could be a possibility. Another might be "busy body". (or is that too negative???)

[William2]

I would say that this person is a fox, that's the closet meaning I can think about. Thi sperson is sly or trickish too (bad meaning for the last one).