Wishing everyone Xin nian kuai le - A happy new year for the year of the horse.
My friend sings a new year song for his friends in english. (His home and garden featured in parts)
Gong xi fa cai - Congratulations and Prosperity - CNY 2014 Festival
by fulltimestudent 14 Replies latest social current
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fulltimestudent
If you want to surprise a chinese friend, you can learn to song a greeting with this handy version put together by the New York Chinese Language Centre:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFqlnHaz_Co
To make it easier, they use a transliteration from Chinese characters into pinyin (an alphabetical system to express chinese sounds). The numbers after the words, represent the correct tone to use. Chinese is a tonal language - the way you say the word is part of the meaning.
To use the first tone your voice is high and level, to use second tone, your voice rises sharply, with third tone your voice dips down and then up, and fourth tone, your voice falls sharply.
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fulltimestudent
and the New York Chinese Language Centre has put together this collection of greetings and wishes with a CNY/Spring Festival theme:
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Steve_C
Xin Nian Kuai Le from Taiwan! Wishing everyone here a prosperous Year of the Horse!
Fulltimestudent (and others), do you have any plans? I'll be hanging out with a local family on 除夕chu xi (lunar New Year's Eve), enjoying 年夜飯 nian ye fan (family dinner), 守歲 shou sui (countdown) and playing lots of mahjong! -
RottenRiley
Full-Time did you take the GaoDao or your pengyou men? It's time for JWN to learn how to make Nian Gao or Dan Gao depending on your religion.
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smiddy
Well this is an interesting if not unusual thread for jwn
smiddy
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fulltimestudent
RR-
Full-Time did you take the GaoDao or your pengyou men? It's time for JWN to learn how to make Nian Gao or Dan Gao depending on your religion.
haha- watched the video with a chinese friend - and the usual problem with Chinese ways - that's not the right way!!! Well, investigated a bit further and found what he says is the right way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9-_rzgXoXA
His right way of course, is from south China (he comes from Fuzhou). The commentary is in Cantonese, so could be Guangzhou or Shenzhen or Hongkong or god knows where else that cantonese speakers live.
My friend offers the opinion that the first cake (your reference) was a northern chinese style. I'm sure I would not know!
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RottenRiley
Full-time, why is calling somone a Egg in Chinese a big insult? I enjoy reading Chinese Poetry and Philosophy, the concept of "Xiao Ren" was Confucious or Lao Tzu?
wáng bā wáng bā dàn guī dàn When reading through
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fulltimestudent
Thanks for sharing Steve_C.
Xin Nian Kuai Le from Taiwan! Wishing everyone here a prosperous Year of the Horse!
Fulltimestudent (and others), do you have any plans? I'll be hanging out with a local family on 除夕 chu xi (lunar New Year's Eve), enjoying 年夜飯 nian ye fan (family dinner), 守歲 shou sui (countdown) and playing lots of mahjong!Enjoy your evening with your friends - that's more or less what I'll be doing.
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Smiddy:
Well this is an interesting if not unusual thread for jwn
I think it would be great if Chunjie (Spring festival) became one of our traditional festivals- Just imagine, we could have a week off for Chrissie and Western New Year... back to work for a few weeks and celebrate Chunjie (the Chinese get 7 days off). Back to work for another few weeks and then another festival at easter. With a bit of good planning we'd have about 3 - 4 months of festivals.
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RR. I'm typing this with a mouth full of southern style new year cake (its very sticky). My friend left to go home and then came back with a small cake to eat. He said his mouth was watering just watching the video.
But that's the wonderful thing about China - its not homogenous - the same custom gets its regional twist. And then when you go outsdie China (Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Taiwan, and the Chinese cities like Singapore and even western (The City of Sydney city government is working on having the largest Chunjie outside China, they think ( I think) that it'll bring in millions of dollars in tourist visitors, even more than the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in February).
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fulltimestudent
One of the big food dishes for the Spring festival are dumplings
Here a group of women prepare large trays of dumplings for the Lunar New Year day feast.
China Daily explains that there are differences between the north and south.
Dumplings
People from the north and south have different traditional foods that they eat on this special day.
In Northern China, people usually eat jiaozi (or dumplings), which are shaped like crescentmoons. It is said that dumplings were first cooked in China some 1,600 years ago.
The Chinese pronunciation of jiaozi means midnight or the end and the beginning of time.
According to historical records, in ancient times people from both north and south ate dumplingson Chinese New Year's Day.
Perhaps because Southern China produced more rice than any other areas, gradually,southerners had more food choices on New Year's Day.
The shape of jiaozi resembles that of ancient gold and silver ingots or a crescent moon, andsymbolizes the hope for a year of plenty.
In some places, people stuff jiaozi with sugar to wish for a sweet life; others put one or two cleancoins in jiaozi -- if you happen to come across one with a coin inside, it means you will enjoy good luck in the coming year.
Many families in China prepare enough jiaozi to last several days during the Spring Festival.
Reference: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/food/2014-01/27/content_17260356_4.htm
