不 管 白 猫 黑 猫，捉 住 老 鼠 就 是 好 猫

bù guǎn bái māo hēi māo , zhuō zhù lǎo shǔ jiù shì hǎo māodictionary entry

it doesn't matter whether a cat is white or black; as long as it catches mice it's a good cat (variant of a Sichuanese saying used in a speech by Deng Xiaoping 鄧小平|邓小平[Dèng Xiǎo píng] in 1962, usually associated with his economic reforms starting in 1978, in which pragmatism was favored over ideological purity)

Sources & editorial notes

Reference definitions: CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source release 2026-10-27T01:55:52Z. Imported 2026-10-27. Definition wording and meaning order are retained. Recognized pronunciation references are displayed with tone marks; the original source record is available below.

Source record: cd-e8a8de1b82ead1f8. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

不管白貓黑貓，捉住老鼠就是好貓 不管白猫黑猫，捉住老鼠就是好猫 [bu4 guan3 bai2 mao1 hei1 mao1 , zhuo1 zhu4 lao3 shu3 jiu4 shi4 hao3 mao1] /it doesn't matter whether a cat is white or black; as long as it catches mice it's a good cat (variant of a Sichuanese saying used in a speech by Deng Xiaoping 鄧小平|邓小平[Deng4 Xiao3 ping2] in 1962, usually associated with his economic reforms starting in 1978, in which pragmatism was favored over ideological purity)/

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Reference information

The definitions above are from CC-CEDICT. Examples and usage notes are available on selected entries.

Character information

Other forms in these source records: 不管白貓黑貓，捉住老鼠就是好貓

View the individual characters. Their meanings do not necessarily explain the meaning of the whole word.

不管白猫黑猫捉住老鼠就是好猫

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.