ON the morning of the first day of Chinese New Year, my pulse would quicken and I’d start to sweat while trying to correctly remember the festive greetings that the elders expect from the younger generation. Hurling the ubiquitous “gong xi fa cai” or the Cantonese version “kong hei fatt choy” just doesn’t cut it with conservative parents. That might invite “the look” or be deemed lazy.
Those first well wishes of the day are customary for so many festive celebrations, be it Ramadan, Deepavali, Christmas or Gawai Dayak. But it’s the face-to-face morning greeting to the parents and elders that holds greater significance, allowing one to convey filial piety and bestowing them with auspicious blessings.
For Muslims, the traditional greeting from the younger generation to their parents would include the element of forgiveness: “Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri. Maaf zahir dan batin”. During Deepavali, popularly known as the Festival of Lights, Hindus would light small clay lamps filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil. It’s no wonder that their festive greetings are usually filled with metaphorical references to light.
Every culture has their own symbols or motifs that are believed to bring happiness. In Chinese tradition, it’s essential to welcome the new year in the most auspicious ways possible. And that includes utilising words and phrases that would invite good luck and positive energy, be they in speech or displayed as a decoration.
A WEALTH OF WISHES
Initially, my lunar new year vocabulary was pathetic after returning to Malaysia, having spent many formative years overseas. Improving it has been a personal test every first day of Chinese New Year, and the “reward” for my efforts being an angpow (red packet containing money) from my parents. It’s one thing to wish “Happy New Year” but when you wish them “the energy and longevity of the horse and dragon” or “wish you four seasons of peace and a flourishing year”, it’s almost like earning 8,888 filial piety bonus points, for each rousing phrase.
But I faced difficulty owing to my poor knowledge of the Chinese language which meant trying to memorise words that I didn’t really understand and doing so with the correct intonation. The wrong intonation for a Chinese character can confuse the recipient, or worse, yield a whole different meaning!
For the Chinese, there’s a plethora of wishes and phrases to express that are steeped in custom, but the most common are quick idioms consisting of four Chinese characters, known as chengyu. Despite their brevity, they’re packed with meaning.
The Chinese language has thousands of idioms, alluding to famous myths, stories and historical events, much like English proverbs and sayings. For example, there is a four-character Chinese idiom that literally translates to “three men make a tiger” but which figuratively means “repeated rumour becomes a fact”.
FESTIVE IDIOMS
Lunar New Year idioms alone number over a hundred! So it’s not uncommon to spout a few at a time when wishing good fortune to someone for the coming year, although it’s unexpected of children and non-Chinese. When the Chinese greet one another during this festive period, the phrase would usually be targeted and relevant somehow to the individual.
So when greeting a business owner, one would wish them a prosperous business and great profits. If someone is preparing for an important exam that year, there is also a phrase to wish them success for that. If you’re meeting your father’s cousin brother’s wife for the first time in years, you won’t go wrong with something generic like wishing them peace and happiness. Greetings can range in theme from studies, career, business, to family, health, wealth and general luck.
The appropriate time to utter such blessings is usually when handing out red packets, when gifts are exchanged, when visiting temples and even during a yee sang prosperity toss as chopsticks mix up the salad ingredients in a chaotic colourful mess. The higher the chopsticks move, the higher the likelihood of the blessings coming true. At least, that’s the popular belief.
Health and peace, success and happiness are universal auspicious themes but it’s no secret that the Chinese value money and wealth highly, hence it’s not considered vulgar for anyone to offer phrases related to wealth. Energetic cries of “huat” or “fatt” (which means prosperity in Hokkien and Cantonese respectively) can be frequently heard during this time of year, and most definitely during a boisterous yee sang toss.
Over time, I learnt a few more four-character idioms such as sun tai kin hong (in Cantonese) to wish someone good health, which is ideal for parents and elders. Wishing “qing chun mei lai” (also in Cantonese) is particularly appropriate for ladies as it wishes them youthfulness and beauty.
One year, I managed to accumulate a vocabulary of 10 festive idioms. That morning when I successfully articulated a few new ones appropriately with the correct pronunciation, the elders beamed as brightly as their colourful New Year attire — and so did I. For that brief moment, I was no longer a “banana” (yellow on the outside, white on the inside) and hopefully my ancestors were smiling from above.
Impress your Chinese friends with these popular traditional Chinese New Year phrases:
xin nian kuai le — Happy new year
nian nian yo yee — May you have surplus every year
long ma jing san — Wishing you the energy of the dragon and horse
wan shi ru yi — May everything go well with you
xin xiang shi cheng — May all your wishes come true
ma dao cheng gong — May you have immediate success
bu bu gao sheng — Work promotions at every step
[For the cheeky and bold] Gong xi fa cai, hong bao na lai — Wishing you wealth and prosperity, give me a red packet!
We asked six Malaysian Chinese personalities to offer their own Chinese New Year greeting:
CO-FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, TURTLE CONSERVATION SOCIETY OF MALAYSIA:
DR CHEN PELF NYOK
May the turtle stick out its head and outrun the rabbit to bring you good health, a bundle of joy, a pot of prosperity and above all, much love! Happy Chinese New Year!
CHEF/CO-OWNER OF MEATOLOGY RESTAURANT: YENNI LAW
Wishing you a very happy and BOARsperous New Year! May you roll in a trough of fortune and be loving and gleeful like a carefree pig!
FASHION DESIGNER: KHOON HOOI
We will open a book.
Its pages are blank.
We are going to put words on them ourselves.
The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is Chinese New Year Day.
ENTREPRENEUR, WOMEN’S RIGHTS ACTIVIST, ARTS ADVOCATE, FILM PRODUCER, DIRECTOR: LOW NGAI YUEN
May you crush the Year of the Boar dotting your net worth with more commas, be noticed by enough Senpai’s, scoring many right swipes to share the emojipedia with, and never have to live through any Ctrl Alt Del moment ever.
NATIONAL DIVER: ANGELA LEONG MUN YEE
Let’s get the Year of the Boar rolling, stop barking and may 2019 be blessed with good health, wealth, happiness and success all year long!
PROFESSIONAL COMEDIAN/ACTOR/ COMEDY CONSULTANT: DOUGLAS LIM
May you strike the GONG of prosperity, XI your bright future, travel FA and wide and always CHAI your best. Gong Xi Fa Chai!