Meaning:
The `turning of the tide' is literally the change of the tide from incoming
to outgoing, or vice-versa. Normally the phrase is used to denote some change
from a previously stable course of events.
Background:
From Shakespeare's Henry V, 1598.
Hostess:
Nay, sure, he's not in hell: he's in Arthur's bosom, if ever man went to
Arthur's bosom. A' made a finer end and went away an it had been any
christom child; a' parted even just between twelve and one, even at the
turning o' the tide: for after I saw him fumble with the sheets and play
with flowers and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew there was but one
way; for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and a' babbled of green fields.
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
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To many, the late 1970s marked one turning of the tide in mainland China. In a
few short years, people thought less class-struggle and more profit. In the
village, each family was allotted a plot of land to till and from which they got
to keep a share of the harvest. In town, vendors started to stud the streets in
front of state- and collective-owned stores and restaurants. Into the 80's, some
even quit government jobs for business, called literally "going to sea." One's
own effort smacked of the single sculling oar at the stern of a sampan, riding
the ebbs and flows of the times.
