I first read about being a paper tiger (w) in 1980 while serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Oklahoma. I had been reading "The Majesty of Books" by Sterling W. Sill when he dedicated an entire chapter to The Paper Man concept (Chapter 34).[1]
The term "Paper tiger" comes from the Chinese phrase zhǐlǎohǔ,[2] and refers to something (or someone) claiming to be powerful but is not. Mao Tse-tung, former chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and (at the time) the paramount leader of China, referenced zhǐlǎohǔ in an interview with journalist Anna Louise Strong, saying:
"The atom bomb is a paper tiger which the U.S. reactionaries use to scare people. It looks terrible, but in fact it isn't. Of course, the atom bomb is a weapon of mass slaughter, but the outcome of a war is decided by the people, not by one or two new types of weapon. All reactionaries are paper tigers. In appearance, the reactionaries are terrifying, but in reality they are not so powerful." [3]
Stirling W. Still uses the Chinese phrase to say that a paper man, in essence, is all bark and no bite. His examples hit home to me when discussing a meeting where church leaders seemed to resent their records regarding their work, claiming they were not interested in the numbers; "it's the people that count."[4] I have been guilty of making similar excuses.
I have learned to recognize this tendency in myself. I tend to think I can do something without being prepared.
My earliest documented paper tiger moment comes from an August 25, 1981, journal entry: "I went running today and talked to the track coach, he said if I wanted to run I could." When (much later) I was digitizing journal entries, I made this note: OSU collegiate-level track and field! And I thought I could walk on without (ever) having run a single event in my life (maybe junior high).
Another (disheartening) paper tiger moment came while Linda and I were sailing aboard the cruise ship Norwegian Epic. I've written a journal entry about the onboard climbing wall experience, so I won't go into details here, but suffice it to say:
"I was cocky and stupid to think I could do it. I haven't been able to do a pull-up since I was twenty years old, and that was the pinnacle move of the climb. I was a tiger in my mind, watching twenty-year-old's perform the activity, but in reality, I was overweight and didn't have the muscle to complete the section."[5]
The experience reminded me that I can (often) deceive myself into thinking I can do something when I cannot. It is the ultimate "fake it until you make it" deception. As I've gotten older, I've become even more mindful of this trait, as now my mind remembers things I (used) to be able to do with ease. However, my body doesn't move with the same elasticity it once did. How does one accurately measure one's abilities?
I've spent most of this essay discussing how I came to recognize this self-deception practice in my own life; however, the ancient phrase zhǐlǎohǔ symbolizes something or someone else claiming to be powerful when they are not. In this vein, Mao Zedong first introduced the idea of paper tigers to Americans.
The idea of a paper tiger reminds us that appearances can be deceiving, and what seems intimidating might not be as strong as it looks.[6] We CAN learn to do amazing things with proper instruction, practice, and patience; however, if we learn to recognize those areas where we might be a bit of a paper tiger ourselves, we stand a better chance of identifying it in others.
Thanks for Reading!
Written January 19, 2025
Grammarly provided editorial assistance.
Footnotes
[1]: Sill, S. W. (1974). The majesty of books. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book.
[2]: Paper tiger. (2024, October 7). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_tiger
[3]: Ibid. (Wikipedia, 2024)
[4]: Ibid. (Sill, 1974)
[5]: My journal entry: 1981-08-26.
[6]: "The idea behind paper tiger." (January 19, 2025). Copilot AI.