Usually when someone does not think your current statement has to do with the conversation at hand they can ask, "What does that have to do with the price of tea in China"?
Where did that form of statement come from?
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The complete expression is actually the following question: "What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?" The price of tea in China is completely irrelevant to the subject of conversation. So, when someone asks this question, it means they’re really surprised by the listener's comments. Effectively, they're saying:
The Wikipedia article Irene mentioned is pretty good. |
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Eric Partridge, "A Dictionary of Catch Phrases," says this one is a variant of "What's that got to do with the price of eggs?" and has been around "since the 1940s--perhaps influenced by the expression, e.g. 'I wouldn't do that, not for all the tea in China.'" He identifies the "eggs" saying as "US: since the 1920s, if not earlier." |
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I've never heard this precise formation: to me, it sounds like a conflation of two phrases- "What's that got to do with the price of fish?" (alternative: eggs) - which as pointed out above is really expressing surprise, and "I wouldn't do that for all the tea in China" - which is expressing extreme reluctance/aversion (and probably dates from the time when tea was an expensive enough commodity that tea-caddies came with lock, to stop the servants from pilfering it). |
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