Understand a Culture by The Language of It
This Friday was Chinese Lunar New Year, and I received lots of greetings from my parents, relatives, and my friends. People in China always say “ Happy New Year!”(Xin Nian Kuai Le), which is the same as what U.S. people usually say. However, Chinese people have countless ways of expressing their blessings besides “Happy New Year”, and all of these various greetings are strongly related to Chinese cultures.
The most specific one is “Wish you to earn much more money and give my the red packet.”(Gong Xi Fa Cai, Hong Bao Na Lai). Red packet, a Chinese traditional custom, is a kind of paper containing money. This is due to a folk myth spreading among people, generation by generation. It makes people to think that spending money can help avoid troubles, so every Chinese New Year, the elder will envelop money and give it to their grandchildren. At the same time, red packet contains the wish of old people to the offspring.
What’s more, “wish you to have far more enough things to use every year”(Nian Nian You Yu) is what we often say to others. At here, “Yu” means “something left”, which states that after one year, someone still has many things left, and the “things” here can be fortunate, treasure, and so on. But “Yu” can also refer to the term “fish”. As a result, Chinese people think of a wise way to combine these two meanings of “Yu”, which is eating fish every Chinese New Eve. So till now, fish is an indispensable dish ordered by Chinese. There are also other words that have the same function. For example, “Wang” is not only the bark of dog, but also means “better”. Therefore, people would say “Ren Wang, Cai Wang, Yun Dao Wang.” as a hope that you can be better, richer, and luckier. In Chinese minds, utilizing homophones to show the celebration of the festivals is normal.
As a Chinese, I have five thousand history of China to memorize, and in the long run of history, too many new elements were continually added to the culture. I can feel it especially when I am here, a foreign country, taking to others who are saying in a foreign language.
